Duncan MacDougall, (in)famous for doing the measurements of dying patients almost a hundred years ago, is said to have repeated the experiments on a number of dogs, but did not notice any drop in their weight like he claimed happened to humans.
Note that the 21 gram was just the number that happened to come from his first test with a human. Tests with other dying patients gave slightly different results (but still with a definite claim of a loss of weight exactly at the moment of death).
On the whole, I wouldn't put much emphasis on these experiments, partially because it was done with only a few subjects, and partially because no one has really repeated the test. Unless it can be confirmed by modern medicine/science that the loss is definite and consistent, and that it can't be explained otherwise, you can't really use it as a basis for arguments.
ADD: Maybe of interest is that Lewis E. Hollander is said to have made a similar test later that involved sheep. The reported result here is that the sheep actually gained a significant weight for a few seconds after they stopped breathing, but that this extra weight vanished a very short while afterward. He had no explanation for this.
This message has been edited by Melchior, 08-10-2004 03:12 PM
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