Blue-grass blade., 1908-06-07
TIE Recent Feat of "SouI-Weighing" Under
Criticism by an Eminent Scientist.
(By DR.. r. ]. Bowles)

In a previous article reference has been
made to numerous superstitions once univer-
sal among primitive and savage men. many
of which by heredty, tradition and vested in
terests, have been handed down to the present
day. and still prevail in modified form.
One of the most persistent Of these super
stitions is the still extant and widely preva-
lent silly belief in the existence of duplicate
or double which every human being is sup
posed to possess, and which is commonly spok-
of the soul; this soul or spirit is sup
posed to be separate and distinct from the
human body, and at death to fly away into
some other sphere of existence. where the
atmosphere and general environment will be
infinitely worse or infinitely better than is
found on this subunary sphere; tenacious
is the life of this preposterous superstition.
that the great city of Boston in the highly
state Of Massachusetts,, in the bright morn
ing of the twentieth century has furnished
an example of men engaged In an effort to
ascertain the precise weight on FairbankS
scales of the ghost or double that is believed
to nhabit the human body.
BY weighing a just previous to death
and Immediately after death they found one
half ounce difference in the weight, and
through the public press of this great repub-
lie they proclaimed to a gullible public that
n mans soul weighs the snug little sum OF
e-half ounce
Nothing but superstition, except insanity.
could pervert the human mind to this degree
of absurdity, for every rational human being
knows that every organic body living or dead.
varies in weight every moment and every
hour Of its existence.
Rational thinking precedes right living, and
this beautiful earth never become a
happy home for the tong millions, until the
light OF science and the torch oe reason dis
pei the dark clouds of superstition which still
drape all the arches of the worlds horizon.
At the present rate Of progress and enight-
eminent II is probable that by the close OF
the twentieth century. all civilized people VIII
he completely emancipated from the baneful
mower of superstition, and when this happy
day arrives a golden cestus Of clasped hands
~,crcle the globe. and all the nations OF
the earth will be filed with JOY and gadness;
this hope may seem to be extravagant. when
we reflect that there Is still more than one
hundred thousand pulpteers In the United
States constantly engaged in dcbauching the
nublc mind with these ancient and degrading
sliperstitons but the student OF science ana
history may safely indulge this hope, because
he knows that progress is eternal and Is
constantly lifting the human rnce to higher
and nober planes Of life; he knows that In
organic nature there are two great forces at
work heredity and environment, and that her
edity preserves the form Of organized bodies
and also the customs. laws beliefs, supersti-
lions and ceremonies Of past ages; he also
knows that slowly and almost imperceptibly
the power Of environment modfes and changes
all the usages and supersttions of past ages.
and thus makes progress certain and inevita-