Vital forces

Harold F M 1986 The Vital Force A Study of Bioenergetics (New York Freeman)... 

The article Wohler and the Vital Force in the March 1957 issue of the ioc/rna/of Chemical Education (pp 141-142) describes how Wohler s experiment af fected the doctrine of vital ism A more recent account of the significance of Woh ler s work appears in the September 1996 issue of the same journal (pp 883-886)... 

Urea [57-13-6] was discovered ia urine by Rouelle ia 1773 and first synthesized from ammonia (qv) and cyanic acid by Woehler ia 1828. This was the first synthesis of an organic compound from an inorganic compound, and it dealt a deathblow to the vital-force theory. In 1870, urea was produced by heating ammonium carbamate ia a sealed tube. 

The s) nthesis of uiea by Wbibler in 1828 is iisu.ally icp,aided as i tiirninp-iioinl in the history of orp.anic rbcmistiy, uhen oip.anic componiuls ceased to be merely pi oducls of a vital force,... 

Lebcos-haltung, /. standard of living, -holz, n. lignum vitae, -kraft, /. vital force vitality, -kunde, -lehre, /. biology, -luft, /. (Old Chem.) vital air (oxygen), -luftmesser, m. eudiometer. 

The term organic chemistry was first used by the Swedish chemist Berzelius in 1807 (Larsson, 1981). He coined the name to describe the chemistry of substances derived from living matter. Berzelius was a staunch believer in the vis vitalis theory, which held that such substances were endowed with a mystical vital force that precluded their synthesis in the laboratory from materials of mineral origin. Ironically, it was a student of Berzelius, Wohler, who heralded the demise of vitalism with his synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate (Wohler, 1928). In a letter to Berzelius in 1828, Wohler wrote I must tell you that I can make urea without requiring kidneys, or even an animal, whether a human being or a dog . 

Brooke, John Hedley. Wohler s urea and its vital force - a verdict from the chemists. Ambix 15 (1968) 84-114. 

As Blavatksy defined it in her Theosophical Glossary, Fohat represents the active (male) potency of the Sakti (female reproductive power) in nature. The essence of cosmic electricity. An occult Tibetan term for Daiviprakriti, primordial light and in the universe of manifestation the ever-present electrical energy and ceaseless destructive and formative power. Esoterically, it is the same, Fohat being the universal propelling Vital Force, at once the propeller and the resultant (1892, 121). 

See O. Theodor Benfey, From Vital Force to Structural Formulas (Washington, D.C. American Chemical Society, 1975 1st ed., 1964) 34. As noted above, Lavoisier s 1789 tableaus include a table of "radicals" in which he surmised elementary substances stayed together as a group. 

Ibid., 234 also see, Benfey, From Vital Force, 105107. 

From Vital Force to Structural Formulas. Washington, DC. American Chemical Society, 1975. 

The breakdown of glucose by yeast to give ethanol, acetic acid, and carbon dioxide was examined quantitatively by Lavoisier (1789) and Gay-Lussac (1810). From his studies (Chapter 2) Pasteur described fermentation as life without air , attributing the process to the presence of yeast cells whose effects were dependent on the vital force. The first suggestion that an unorganized ferment was responsible for fermentation was due to Traube (1858). Support for his ideas came from Berthollet (1860) who extracted yeast with water, precipitated the extract with alcohol, and found that the redissolved precipitate could... 

Although no one realized it at the time, Fulhame s ideas on catalysts were directly relevant to the debate on vital force. There is no mysterious vital force in living organisms. Instead, organic reactions in living organisms depend on organic catalysts called enzymes. 

Until the mid-eighteenth century, scientists believed organic compounds came only from live plants and animals. They reasoned that organisms possessed a vital force that enabled them to produce organic compounds. The first serious blow to this theory of vitalism, which marked the beginning of modern organic chemistry, occurred when Friedrich Wohler (1800-1882) synthesized urea from the two inorganic substances lead cyanate and ammonium hydroxide ... 

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