WEIGHT OF THE SOUL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 15 May 1907, Page 4

WEIGHT OF THE SOUL.

Dr. Duncan Mac Donald, of Haverhill, and four other reputable physicians of Massachusetts, after six years' experiments in a sanatorium, assert that the

"ouls of men and women weigh from half an ounce to an ounce. The physici.ius themselves regard the publication of the results of their experiments as premature, and had intended to make them public through a medical journal. The investigation, they say, was undertaken reverently, and with the object of determining the existence or non-exis-tence of the soul in the human body, and whether the departure Gf the soitl from the body was attended by any .manifestation of nature evident, to the material senses. The method employed, says the New York correspondent of the London Daily Mall, was to wheel the bed of a dying patient upon platform seiles especially con-true.•>( for the purpose. The scales were so delicate that they were sensitive to a weight of lasthan a tenth of an ounce, in everv case loss of weight was shown upon deata, afer atl Ms mfw bgk bg hrd mfw death, after all known scientific deductions for such loss as the respiratory air, moisture, excretions and secretions of the body had been taken into consideration. The first two Subjects were consumptive men, and a difference was shown immediately upon death. The third patient was a phlegmatic man, -slow in thought, and action and a minute elapsed before Ihe movement of the scales. Dr. Ilereward ('arring;on. a Now York associate, and Dr. HHop. of the Society for Psychical Ke-earch, say that the conclusive proof that tha soul is mutter is of the highest scientific importance. They olijeet to tests on sick persons as inconclitsive,a»d suggest that tests be made with healthy murderers put to death in the electric chair PHILADELPHIA JUSTICE.

A member of the Philadelphia Kar tells of a queer old character j n Altnona who for a long time vras a jutljro of a police rourt in that town. On one occa-ion, during a session of his court, there was such an amount of conversation and laughter in the court-room that his Honor became very :angry and confused. Suddenly, iit great wrath, he shouted: "Silence, there! We have decided aliove a dozen eases this morning, and 1 haven't heard a word of one of them!''