The 21 gram trial refers to a scientific study published in 1907 by Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts. MacDougall hypothesizes that the soul has a physical weight, and seeks to measure the mass lost by humans when the soul leaves the body. MacDougall attempted to measure the mass amendment of six patients at death. One in six subjects lost three quarters of an ounce (21.3 grams).
MacDougall states that his experiment must be repeated many times before any conclusions can be obtained. Experiments are widely perceived as defective and unscientific because of the small sample size, the methods employed, as well as the fact that only one of the six subjects meets the hypothesis. This case has been cited as an example of selective reporting. Despite his refusal in the scientific community, MacDougall's experiments popularized the concept that the soul is heavy, and specifically weighs 21 grams.
Video 21 grams experiment
Experiments
In 1901, Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts, wanted to scientifically determine whether a soul had weight, identified six patients in a nursing home whose deaths were imminent. Four suffer from tuberculosis, one from diabetes, and one from non-specific causes. MacDougall specifically selects people who suffer from conditions that cause physical exhaustion, because he needs patients to remain silent when they die to accurately measure them. When patients looked like they were about to die, their entire bed was placed on a sensitive industrial size scale in two tenths of an ounce (5.6 grams). With the belief that humans have no soul and no animal, MacDougall then measures the weight change of fifteen dogs after death. MacDougall says he wants to use a sick or dying dog for his experiments, though he can not find it. Therefore it is suspected he poisoned a healthy dog.
Results
One of the patients lost weight but then restored the weight back, and two other patients recorded weight loss at the time of death but a few minutes later lost weight. One patient lost "three quarters of an ounce" (21.3 grams) by weight, coinciding with the time of death. MacDougall ignores the results of other patients by reason of "not well adjusted" scales, and ignores other outcomes when patients die when equipment is calibrated. MacDougall reported that no dog lost weight after death.
While MacDougall believes that the results of his experiments show that the human soul may have weighed, its report, unpublished until 1907, suggests that the experiment should be repeated many times before any conclusion can be obtained.
Maps 21 grams experiment
Reaction
Before MacDougall was able to publish the results of his experiments, The New York Times broke the story in an article titled "Soul has Weight, Physician Thinks". MacDougall's results were published in April of the same year in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research and American Medical Journal.
Criticism
After the publication of the experiment at American medicine , the doctor Augustus P. Clarke criticized the validity of the experiment. Clarke notes that at the time of death there is a sudden increase in body temperature because the lungs no longer cool the blood, causing a rise in sweat which can easily lead to the loss of 21 grams of MacDougall. Clarke also points out that, since dogs do not have sweat glands, they will not lose weight in this way after death. Clarke's criticism was published in the May issue of American Medicine. The argument between MacDougall and Clarke arguing the validity of the experiment continues to be published in the journal until at least December of that year.
MacDougall's experiment has been the subject of considerable skepticism, and he has been accused of the method of defects and direct deception in obtaining the results. Noting that only one of the six patients measured supports the hypothesis, Karl Kruszelnicki stated the experiment was a selective reporting case, because MacDougall ignored most of the results. Kruszelnicki also criticized the small sample size, and questioned how MacDougall could determine the exact moment when someone had died given the technology available at the time. Physicist Robert L. Park has written that the MacDougall experiment "is not considered today to have scientific achievements", and psychologist Bruce Hood wrote that "because weight loss is unreliable or replicable, the findings are unscientific". Professor Richard Wiseman says that in the scientific community, experiments limited to "large stacks of labeled scientific curiosity" are almost certainly not true '".
An article by Snopes in 2013 said the experiment was flawed because the method used was a suspect, the sample size was too small, and the ability to measure weight changes was too imprecise, concluding: "The beliefs should not be given to the idea of ​​experiments proven something, measuring the weight of the soul as 21 grams. "The fact that MacDougall probably poisoned and killed fifteen healthy dogs in an effort to support his research has also been a source of criticism.
Legacy
In 1911 The New York Times reported that MacDougall hoped to run an experiment to take photographs of the soul, but apparently he did not continue further research into the area and died in 1920. His experiment had not been reset.
Despite denials in the scientific community, MacDougall's experiments popularized the idea that the soul is heavy, and specifically weighs 21 grams. Notably, '21 Grams' was taken as a movie title in 2003, which refers to the experiment.
The concept of a soul weighing 21 grams is mentioned in many media, including the 2013 edition of the manga Gantz , podcast 2013 Welcome to Night Vale , 2015 The Empire of Corpses ,, 2015 song "21 Grams" by Niykee Heaton, featuring a line "I just want your soul in my hand, feel your weight 21 grams." as well as a song of the same name released in 2017 by Thundamentals. MacDougall and his experiments are explicitly mentioned in the 1978 documentary Beyond and Back, and the fifth episode of the first season of Dark Matters: Twisted But True . A fictitious American scientist named "Mr. MacDougall" appears in Gail Carriger's 2009 novel Soulless, as an expert in weight and soul measurement.
References
External links
- The full text of the original report. Duncan MacDougall
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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