Cannot Hold My Chemical Water—I Can Make Urea

I CANNOT HOLD MY CHEMICAL WATER—I CAN MAKE UREA  

Wohler is said to have remained a believer in Vitalism. It has been noted that just as Priestley, the phlogistonist, discovered oxygen, which was the downfall of phlogiston theory, Wohler, the Vitalist, synthesized urea, which was the beginning of the downfall of Vitalism. The true end for Vitalism came in the 1840s when the German chemist Hermann Kolbe effectively demonstrated the 

We end this essay on an amusing note. John Darhy, Professor of Chemistry and Natural Sciences In East Alabama College, describes isomeric bodies in his 1861 Text Book of Chemistry.He correctly notes that ethyl formate and methyl acetate are isomeric bodies (their formulas are both C3Hg02). He then goes on to say An explanation of these phenomena that attributes them to a different arrangement of atoms, is not satisfactory, as elementary bodies assume different states in inorganic chemistry, which is called allotropism, when such a cause is evidently impossible. We can only refer it, at present, to the will of the Creator.  

The Norton History Chemistry, Norton, New York, 1993, pp. 201—202 214. 

Gohen and S.M. Cohen, Journal of Chennical Education, 73 883—886, 1996.1 am grateful to Dr. Daniel Rabinovich for bringing this paper and the one in Reference 7 to my attention. 

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