“Wait —” is a weekly newsletter in which Caity Weaver investigates an unanswered (and possibly unasked) question in the news and pop culture. See last week’s inaugural edition and sign up here to receive it in your inbox going forward.
One spring evening in 1901, a doctor in Massachusetts laid a tuberculosis-stricken man on a wooden platform so that the doctor could watch him die, and hopefully calculate the weight of his soul. For three hours and 40 minutes, Duncan MacDougall recalibrated his scales by fractions of ounces as the dying man’s nose and mouth dried out, and his last sweat evaporated off his skin.