Hello Steemians
Now I'm sure on just reading the title you're already asking "WTF is this guy talking about" Well it all originates from a study performed by Dr. Duncan MacDougall a well respected physician of Haverhill (Massachusetts Medical Society) and the head of the Research Society.
Dr. Duncan MacDougall had hypothesized that the human soul had a mass, and this mass would leave our bodies on time of death. On 10 April 1901, he conducted his experiment in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Dr MacDougall was going to prove that the human soul had mass, and was therefore, measurable.
With the assistance of four other Doctors, Dr MacDougall was performing an almost unethical test in the name of science. With half a dozen test subjects all near death, he proceeded to weigh each individual both before and after time of death. To many peoples astonishment, Dr Macdougall had been almost uniformly correct, with all 6 subjects losing close to 21 grams of body mass.
A quote from the 11 March 1907 New York Times captures the historic moment:
Dr. MacDougall conducted the same experiment on 15 dogs. The experiments had made no indication of weight loss following their deaths. Therefore MacDougall concluded that this may signify only humans have souls
Upon the news of his experiments, another gentleman by the name of H. LaV. Twining, a physics teacher at Los Angeles Polytechnic High School, performed the 'Macdougall Test' with mice, and had conclusions in line with Macdougall.
After his much questionable examinations were concluded, he moved onto trying to photograph the human soul leaving the body, with no success. Dr. MacDougall failed to establish any further scientific breakthroughs. Dr. Duncan MacDougal passed away in 1920.
Images courtesy of http://www.droralouvre.org/individualhtml/scales.html
www.historicmysteries.com/the-21-gram-soul-theory/
