2023-11-08 20:26:00
Philippe Boxho was the guest of RTL info Signatures this Wednesday, November 8. The forensic doctor answered questions from Christophe Deborsu and Luc Gilson, in particular on this legend which claims that our soul weighs precisely 21 grams.
You’ve probably already heard the legend that the human soul weighs 21 grams.
Invited on the set of RTL info Signatures, the forensic doctor Philippe Boxho explained the origin of this rumor, which has, in reality, a scientific origin. “It’s a story from the early 1900s, regarding an American doctor called Duncan Mac Dougall”indicated the expert. “He said to himself, ‘If the soul exists, it necessarily has a weight since all matter has a weights, even small.”
So, to illustrate his point, Duncan Mac Dougall conducted an experiment. “To measure this weight, he took people who were dying, put them on a scale and measured their weight before death and following death”explains Philippe Boxho to Luc Gilson and Christophe Deborsu. “He did this seven times: six times it failed, once it succeeded. It was this time that he managed to measure 21 grams”continues the forensic doctor. “But he says it in his article, it is an experiment to be repeated, it is not conclusive…”
According to information reported on sciencepost.fr, the publication, at the time, of Duncan Mac Dougall’s article provoked lively debates. Another doctor, named Augustus P. Clarke, even reviewed the experience and techniques used by Mac Dougall. “Clarke then points out that at the moment of death, the lungs stop cooling the blood, causing a slight increase in body temperature, which causes the skin to sweat”; this increase in temperature would therefore explain the 21 grams put forward by .
Since then, the experience has apparently not been repeated, but the legend is still alive.
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