THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 8 1 



was more reason than there is at present for the belief 

 that the forces in living things are altogether peculiar, 

 because it appeared that certain compounds of carbon 

 with other elements, known as organic substances, were 

 capable of being produced only within these laboratories 

 of nature. A department of Inorganic chemistry has 

 hitherto existed, separated quite definitely from another 

 known as that of Organic chemistry. In the former 

 were included all those elements and their compounds 

 which were naturally met with amongst, and which 

 made up the not-living constituents of our globe, 

 whilst under the latter department were ranged those 

 compounds and their derivatives which were sup- 

 posed to exist only in plants and animals. The 

 so-called organic compounds were for a long time 

 regarded as altogether peculiar ; not as regards com- 

 position for they were known to be composed of 

 precisely the same elements as were most abundant 

 in the inorganic world but rather in point of 

 origin. They were the products only of living things : 

 had been produced under the influence of c vital' forces. 

 The action of physical forces in the world without was 

 deemed inadequate to give rise to such combinations, 

 and therefore they were separated by a hard and fast 

 line from all other compounds with which the chemist 

 manipulated. Thus the popular belief of the time 

 concerning Life was fostered; and an argument for 

 the special and peculiar nature of the c vital forces/ 

 could, at least, be based on the supposed fact that 



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