DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 81 



substance spontaneously, which sub- 

 stance later upbuilds the organism, but 

 for the present this remains an open 

 question to which as yet the material- 

 ists have not given an answer. But 

 before we enter the discussion of this 

 extremely important question, we will 

 in this connection mention another dis- 

 covery of natural science which seems 

 exactly to support the materialistic 

 trend of thought, a fact, therefore, that 

 crowns, so to speak, their whole philos- 

 ophy. 



Up to the year 1828 it was thought 

 that organic substance could be created 

 only by the force of life. But Wohler 

 unexpectedly succeeded in producing or- 

 ganic compositions from inorganic sub- 

 stances, a discovery which was fol- 

 lowed by a series of others in the same 

 direction. It is with evident satisfac- 

 tion that Buchner calls our attention to 

 these facts. 



In order to show the necessity for 

 assuming a life-force, he says, people 

 have reminded the chemists that they 



