CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN LIFE 



compounds in non-living matter, form a striking 

 contrast. We are, then, not surprised to see that 

 at the beginning of the last century the view was 

 generally adopted that carbon compounds can only 

 be formed by synthesis in the living cell. To be 

 complete it must be mentioned that still in the 

 eighteenth century even the mineral salts in plants 

 were said to be formed in the plant cell by the Life 

 Process. Saussure, in 1804, was the first biologist 

 who proved unquestionably that all mineral salts 

 are taken up into the plant from their watery 

 solution in the soil, and that none are formed in the 

 plant itself. 



In 1828 the question of carbon compounds in 

 living organisms was solved by the discovery of the 

 German chemist Woehler, that urea can be 

 artificially prepared in the laboratory from 

 ammonium cyanate. The deep impression pro- 

 duced upon the scientific world by this important 

 synthesis may be gathered from the opinion ex- 

 pressed by Dumas in 1836. The eminent chemist 

 stated that no sharp line of distinction could be 

 drawn between Inorganic and Organic Chemistry. 

 In plants and animals must rather dwell a peculiar 

 power of synthesis which it was henceforth the 

 task of Organic Chemistry to imitate. The 

 glorious range of organic syntheses during the last 

 century is still fresh in our recollection. Nearly 

 all the important animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances are at present accessible to artificial 

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