American Medicine April, 1907 Hypothesis Concerning Soul Substance Together with Experimental Evidence of the Existence of Such

Substance
By Duncan MacDougall M!D! of Haverhill Mass! "f personal continuity after the event of bodily death is a fact if the psychic functions continue to exist as a separate individually or personality after the death of brain and body then such personality can only exit as a space occupying body unless the relations between space ob#ective and space notions in our consciousness established in our consciousness by heredity and experience are entirely wiped out at death and a new set of relations between space and consciousness suddenly established in the continuing personality! This would be an unimaginable breach in the continuity of nature! It is unthinkable that personality and consciousness continuing personal identity should exist, and have being, and yet not occupy space. It is impossible to represent in thought that hich is not space!occupying, as having personality" #or that ould be e$uivalent to thinking that nothing had become or as something, that emptiness had personality, that space itsel# as more than space, all o# hich are contradictions and absurd. %ince there#ore it is necessary to the continuance o# conscious li#e and personal identity a#ter death, that they must have #or a basis that hich is space!occupying, or substance, the $uestion arises has this substance eight, is it ponderable& 'he essential thing is that there must be a substance as the basis o# continuing personal identity and consciousness, #or ithout space!occupying substance, personality or a continuing conscious ego a#ter bodily death is unthinkable. According to the latest conception o# science, substance, or space!occupying material, is divisible into that hich is gravitative, solids, li$uids, gases, all having eight, and the ether hich is nongravitative. It seemed impossible to me that the soul substance could consist o# the ether. I# the conception is true that ether is continuous and not to be conceived o# as existing or capable o# existing in separate masses, e have here the most solid ground #or believing that the soul substance e are seeking is not ether, because one o# the very #irst attributes o# personal identity is the $uality o# separateness. (othing is more borne in upon consciousness, than that the ego is detached and separate #rom all things else ! the nonego.

)e are there#ore driven back upon the assumption that the soul substance so necessary to the conception o# continuing personal identity, a#ter the death o# this material body, must still be a #orm o# gravitative matter, or perhaps a middle #orm o# substance neither gravitative matter or ether, not capable o# being eighed, and yet not identical ith ether. %ince ho ever the substance considered in our hypothesis is linked organically ith the body until death takes place, it appears to me more reasonable to think that it must be some #orm o# gravitative matter, and there#ore capable o# being detected at death by eighing a human being in the act o# death. My #irst sub*ect as a man dying o# tuberculosis. It seemed to me best to select a patient dying ith a disease that produces great exhaustion, the death occurring ith little or no muscular movement, because in such a case the beam could be kept more per#ectly at balance and any loss occurring readily noted. 'he patient as under observation #or three hours and #orty minutes be#ore death, lying on a bed arranged on a light #rame ork built upon very delicately balanced plat#orm beam scales. 'he patient+s com#ort as looked a#ter in every ay, although he as practically moribund hen placed upon the bed. ,e lost eight slo ly at the rate o# one ounce per hour due to evaporation o# moisture in respiration and evaporation o# s eat. -uring all three hours and #orty minutes I kept the beam end slightly above balance near the upper limiting bar in order to make the test more decisive i# it should come. At the end o# three hours and #orty minutes he expired and suddenly coincident ith death the beam end dropped ith an audible stroke hitting against the lo er limiting bar and remaining there ith no rebound. 'he loss as ascertained to be three!#ourths o# an ounce. 'his loss o# eight could not be due to evaporation o# respiratory moisture and s eat, because that had already been determined to go on, in his case, at the rate o# one sixtieth o# an ounce per minute, hereas this loss as sudden and large, three!#ourths o# an ounce in a #e seconds. 'he bo els did not move" i# they had moved the eight ould still have remained upon the bed except #or a slo loss by the evaporation o# moisture depending, o# course, upon the #luidity o# the #eces. 'he bladder evacuated one or t o drams o# urine. 'his remained upon the bed and could only have in#luenced the eight by slo gradual evaporation and there#ore in no ay could account #or the sudden loss. 'here remained but one more channel o# loss to explore, the expiration o# all but the residual air in the lungs. .etting upon the bed mysel#, my colleague put the beam at actual balance. Inspiration and expiration o# air as #orcibly as possible by me had no e##ect upon the beam. My colleague got upon the bed and I placed the beam at balance. /orcible inspiration and expiration o# air on his part had no e##ect. In this case e

certainly have an inexplicable loss o# eight o# three!#ourths o# an ounce. Is it the soul substance& ,o other shall e explain it& My second patient as a man moribund #rom tuberculosis. ,e as on the bed about #our hours and #i#teen minutes under observation be#ore death. 'he #irst #our hours he lost eight at the rate o# three!#ourths o# an ounce per hour. ,e had much slo er respiration than the #irst case, hich accounted #or the di##erence in loss o# eight #rom evaporation o# perspiration and respiratory moisture. 'he last #i#teen minutes he had ceased to breathe but his #acial muscles still moved convulsively, and then, coinciding ith the last movement o# the #acial muscles, the beam dropped. 'he eight lost as #ound to be hal# an ounce. 'hen my colleague auscultated the heart and and #ound it stopped. I tried again and the loss as one ounce and a hal# and #i#ty grains. In the eighteen minutes that lapsed bet een the time he ceased breathing until e ere certain o# death, there as a eight loss o# one and a hal# ounces and #i#ty grains compared ith a loss o# three ounces during a period o# #our hours, during hich time the ordinary channels o# loss ere at ork. (o bo el movement took place. 'he bladder moved but the urine remained upon the bed and could not have evaporated enough through the thick bed clothing to have in#luenced the result. 'he beam at the end o# eighteen minutes o# doubt as placed again ith the end in slight contact ith the upper bar and atched #or #orty minutes but no #urther loss took place. My scales ere sensitive to t o!tenths o# an ounce. I# placed at balance one!tenth o# an ounce ould li#t the beam up close to the upper limiting bar, another one!tenth ounce ould bring it up and keep it in direct contact, then i# the t o!tenths ere removed the beam ould drop to the lo er bar and then slo ly oscillate till balance as reached again. 'his patient as o# a totally di##erent temperament #rom the #irst, his death as very gradual, so that e had great doubts #rom the ordinary evidence to say *ust hat moment he died. My third case, a man dying o# tuberculosis, sho ed a eight o# hal# and ounce lost, coincident ith death, and an additional loss o# one ounce a #e minutes later. In the #ourth case, a oman dying o# diabetic coma, un#ortunately our scales ere not #inely ad*usted and there as a good deal o# inter#erence by people opposed to our ork, and although at death the beam sunk so that it re$uired #rom three!eighths to one!hal# ounce to bring it back to the point preceding death, yet I regard this test as o# no value. My #i#th case, a man dying o# tuberculosis, sho ed a distinct drop in the beam re$uiring about three!eighths o# an ounce hich could not be accounted #or. 'his occurred exactly simultaneously ith death but peculiarly on bringing the beam up again ith eights and later removing them, the beam did not sink back to stay #or #ully #i#teen minutes. It as impossible to account #or the three!eighths o# an ounce drop, it as so sudden and

distinct, the beam hitting the lo er bar ith as great a noise as in the #irst case. 0ur scales in the case ere very sensitively balanced. My sixth and last case as not a #air test. 'he patient died almost ithin #ive minutes a#ter being placed upon the bed and died hile I as ad*usting the beam. In my communication to -r. ,odgson I note that I have said there as no loss o# eight. It should have been added that there as no loss o# eight that e ere *usti#ied in recording. My notes taken at the time o# experiment sho a loss o# one and one!hal# ounces but in addition it should have been said the experiment as so hurried, *arring o# the scales had not holly ceased and the apparent eight loss, one and one!hal# ounces, might have been due to accidental shi#ting o# the sliding eight on that beam. 'his could not have been true o# the other tests" no one o# them as done hurriedly. My sixth case I regard as one o# no value #rom this cause. 'he same experiments ere carried out on #i#teen dogs, surrounded by every precaution to obtain accuracy and the results ere uni#ormly negative, no loss o# eight at death. A loss o# eight takes places about 10 to 20 minutes a#ter death hich is due to the evaporation o# the urine normally passed, and hich is duplicated by evaporation o# the same amount o# ater on the scales, every other condition being the same, e.g., temperature o# the room, except the presence o# the dog+s body. 'he dogs experimented on eighed bet een 13 and 70 pounds and the scales ith the total eight upon them ere sensitive to one!sixteenth o# an ounce. 'he tests on dogs ere vitiated by the use o# t o drugs administered to secure the necessary $uiet and #reedom #rom struggle so necessary to keep the beam at balance. 'he ideal tests on dogs ould be obtained in those dying #rom some disease that rendered them much exhausted and incapable o# struggle. It as not my #ortune to get dogs dying #rom such sickness. 'he net result o# the experiments conducted on human beings, is that a loss o# substance occurs at death not accounted #or by kno n channels o# loss. Is it the soul substance& It ould seem to me to be so. According to our hypothesis such a substance is necessary to the assumption o# continuing or persisting personality a#ter bodily death, and here e have experimental demonstration that a substance capable o# being eighed does leave the human body at death. I# this substance is a counterpart to the physical body, has the same bulk, occupies the same dimensions in space, then it is a very much lighter substance than the atmosphere surrounding our earth hich eighs about one and one!#ourth ounces per cubic #oot. 'his ould be a #act o# great signi#icance, as such a body ould readily ascend in our atmosphere. 'he absence o# a eighable mass leaving the body at death ould o# course

be no argument against continuing personality, #or a space!occupying body or substance might exist not capable o# being eighed, such as the ether. It has been suggested that the ether might be that substance, but ith the modern conception o# science that the ether is the primary #orm o# all substance, that all other #orms o# matter are merely di##erentiations o# the ether having varying densities, then it seems to me that soul substance hich is in this li#e linked organically ith the body, cannot be identical ith the ether. Moreover, the ether is supposed to be nondiscontinuous, a continuous hole and not capable o# existing in separate masses as ether, hereas the one prime re$uisite #or a continuing personality or individuality is the $uality o# separateness, the ego as separate and distinct #rom all things else, the nonego. 'o my mind there#ore the soul substance cannot be the ether as ether" but i# the theory that ether is the primary #orm o# all substance is true, then the soul substance must necessarily be a di##erentiated #orm o# it. I# it is de#initely proved that there is in the human being a loss o# substance at death not accounted #or by kno n channels o# loss, and that such loss o# substance does not occur in the dog as my experiments ould seem to sho , then e have here a physiological di##erence bet een the human and the canine at least and probably bet een the human and all other #orms o# animal li#e. I am a are that a large number o# experiments ould re$uire to be made be#ore the matter can be proved beyond any possibility o# error, but i# #urther and su##icient experimentation proves that there is a loss o# substance occurring at death and not accounted #or by kno n channels o# loss, the establishment o# such a truth cannot #ail to be o# the utmost importance. 0ne ounce o# #act more or less ill have more eight in demonstrating the truth o# the reality o# continued existences ith the necessary basis o# substance to rest upon, than all the hair!splitting theories o# theologians and metaphysicians combined. I# other experiments prove that there is a loss o# eight occurring at death, not accounted #or by kno n channels o# loss, e must either admit the theory that it is the hypothetical soul substance, or some other explanation o# the phenomenon should be #orthcoming. I# proved true, the materialistic conception ill have been #ully met, and proo# o# the substantial basis #or mind or spirit or soul continuing a#ter the death o# the body, insisted upon as necessary by the materialists, ill have been #urnished. It ill prove also that the spiritualistic conception o# the immateriality o# the soul as rong. 'he postulates o# religious creeds have not been a positive and #inal settlement o# the $uestion. 'he theories o# all the philosophers and all the philosophies o##er no #inal solution o# the problem o# continued personality a#ter bodily death. 'his #act alone o# a space occupying body o# measurable eight disappearing at death, i# veri#ied, #urnishes the substantial

basis #or persisting personality or a conscious ego surviving the act o# bodily death, and in the element o# certainty is orth more than the postulates o# all the creeds and all the metaphysical arguments combined.