Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-08-25
A STARTLING IDEA.
,NcERSoLL'S PROPOSED SAcRI-
FlCE FOR SCIENCE.

The Great Asnostic Offered Ills Dying Breath
for Investisation-Th Material Nature Of
the Supposed Immortal Part Of Man to Be
Determined-He Maintained That The Spirit
Could Be Frozen Just as Other Air is-had
Studied the Subject Intensely.
To have his soul liquified when he
should come to die was the strange
ambition which possessed the late
Robert G. Ingersoll during the last
Jew months of his life. He hoped
thus to establish beyond all controversy
the truth of agnosticism's central
tenet-that the human soul, like ordi-
nary air of the universe, is in its
essence material and mortal and per-
ishable.
He had become deeply impressed
with the psychological possibilities of
the recent scientific discoveries in re-
regard to the liquefaction of air, and
Chicagoans who conversed with him
not long ago over the subject declare
that he was willing to have his soul, as
breathed forth in his dying moments,
made prisoner for the most startling
experiment OF history.
How to arrange matters so that the
experiment would receive fair trial
was problem that occupied the great
agnostic's thoughts for some months
to the exclusion Of most other mat
ters. 1t seemed to him that the
progress of science demanded that an
experiment be made with a view TO
demonstrate whether the air exhaled
in humanity's dying gasps differed IN
any way from other air. He believed
that the scientific appliances and
instruments already invented were
capable of securing the reception OF a
dying persons last breath in a bulb
or vessel Theoretically sealed. This
breath, which he reasoned must con-
tain "what soul there is," could then
be submitted 10 the processes followed
in the liquefying of ordinary air.
Comparisons between the product OF
this experiment and other liquetica-
tions of air-or with the liquefied
souls of animals-would, in the
agnostic leaders opinion, be of tre-
mendous interest to the entire human
race. But it was Ingersolrs firmest
belief that no differences would be
revealed. Never for a moment did
he believe that the breath of man
would prove incapable OF liquefaction.
Should the "dying breath" be cap
turei, imprisoned and bottled up"
no priest or parson could, in IngersolPs
judgment, contend with any show or
reason that the soul had escaped. In
this connection he. is said to have
pointed to the scriptural ascount of
the imprisonment of the Omnipotent
Savior's soul in limbo and to the
NEUROLOGICAL legend detailing the
escape of the spirit OF evil from the
jewel case of Pandora.
1t was during late visit to Chicago
that Col. Ingersoll set forth to q party
of medical men and students the
views and purposes above outlined.
House physician Thoren, Of the Cook
county hospital, and number of
students at the institution had gone
to Studebaker's hall to hear the cele-
brated infideps lecture on" The Devil"
At the close OF the lecture there was
the usual informal reception, when
the heated condition of the atmos-
phere in the crowded hall elected
from a student some interesting re-
marks in reference to the severe freez-
ing or "liquefying" processes which
air was being subjected to at the hands
of scientists.
Instantly upon hearing these refer
ences to air liquefaction the face and
manner of the famous iconoclast be-
came most thoughtful and he is said
to have spoken of the subject with
interest, though abstractedly. At the
very outset he startled his visitors
with the avowal that the problem OF
"soul liquefactiop'' was what inter-
ested him most in connection with the
new developments or discoveries as to
the liquefying Of air. He declared
that he had pondered this one prob
!! lem for months; it had monopolized
his thoughts by day and was dreampt
Of by him at night. With some of
his closest personal friends he had, he
said, taken counsel on the subject. He
had told them OF his belief that with
the final parting breath of dying
person, the soul-whether it existed as
an integral part of that breath or as q
separate entity-could be "bottled
up" for experiment in air liquefaction.
His friends thought this plan
too daring to be ever put into
effect. They warned him, he said,
that the man or woman was yet un-
born who would consent to imprison-
ment Of his or her soul for this or any
other purpose. Though they doubted
not that scientists could be found who
would make the experiment on a soul
secured with the consent OF its owner,
they were certain that no physician or
other scientists Of this day would ever
essay to imprison human soul or at
tempt to liquefy it unless given for