278 WHAT 18 LIFE 



Obviously, too, the measurement of life that is 

 proposed, is entirely unlike the experiments that 

 have been made in "weighing the soul." The experi- 

 ments of a Dr. Duncan MacDougall (of Haverhill, 

 Mass.) who "weighed the soul," consisted in weigh- 

 ing the human body immediately before and after 

 death. He found a difference in weight of about six 

 to eight ounces, and from this concluded that he 

 had "weighed the soul." That at the moment of 

 death, with the exhalation of the last breath, the 

 body should lose slightly (some ounces) in weight, 

 would seem likely from physicochemical considera- 

 tions. However, the loss that is registered on a 

 scale that weighs "matter" certainly is not the 

 loss of the quantity which the theory describes 

 as life, or the soul. One might with equal pro- 

 priety and with equal hope of success weigh a wire 

 after the current has been shut off, to determine 

 something about the quantity of the current, as to 

 weigh the human body before and after death to 

 determine something about life, or the soul. 



All experiments in connection with death hereto- 

 fore have been on the body; on tissue, nerve, muscle; 

 on matter. There has been no research to determine 

 whether or not death is the severance, the sub- 

 traction, of an immaterial quantity from the or- 

 ganism; because not a few leading men of science 



