THE FORCES IN THE ORGANISM 51 



this vis vitalis expressed no rational thought, there existed 

 now at any rate a sounding phrase which covered a mass of 

 ignorance : 



" Denn eben wo Begriffe fehlen, 

 Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein." 



Only slowly and gradually did the conviction gain ground that 

 there is no foundation for such a radical difference as that 

 which superficial observation had created between the organic 

 and inorganic world. 



The school of Vitalism suffered a severe blow when chemistry, 

 daily extending the boundaries of its knowledge, proved that the 

 bodies of all living beings are built up with the same element 

 as dead matter, and that the difference between organic and 

 inorganic compounds is only the difference in the combination of 

 the individual elements. And when in 1828 the famous chemist 

 Wohler succeeded in producing artificially in the laboratory 

 an organic compound, urine, by synthesis from inorganic bodies, 

 the doctrine of vitalism lost one supporter after another ; further 

 discoveries completed its decay. Other animal and vegetable 

 compounds spirits of wine, vinegar, sugar, starch, &c. were 

 produced out of their elements by chemical synthesis, and 

 we are now within measurable distance of the day when 

 chemists will succeed in making artificially the foundation of 

 all phenomena of life, the albumen. Quite recently an important 

 advance in this direction has been made by the brilliant work 

 of Emil Fischer. 



But not only do similar chemical elements build up alike 

 animate and inanimate matter, both are also subject to the 

 same physico-mechanical laws. With each advance of science 

 this fact becomes clearer and more convincing. A few instances 

 will suffice. 



On looking at a longitudinal section of a human femur we 

 observe that the fibre-ducts and bone-corpuscles are arranged 

 on strict architectonic principles. The femur is a tube with 

 strong walls. In the so-called neck and head of this bone the 

 parts which carry the greatest load the spongy cancellous tissue 

 is arranged from wall to wall in slender bars or lamellae, which 

 unite together to form an open lattice-work, like that of an iron 



