is being taken of the fact that 60 and 70 years ago people 

 jumped at conclusions very imprudently when they be- 

 lieved that the first artificial preparation of organic matter 

 (urea, by Woehler) had proven the non-existence of a vital 

 force. Since then there has been great rejoicing in the 

 camp of materialists who scoffed at the "ignorant" who 

 would not as yet forsake vital force. "Behold," they said, 

 "in the chemist's retort the same matter is produced chem- 

 ically that is produced in the body of the animal, without 

 the direction of a hidden vital force, which, if it is not 

 necessary in the one case, neither is it necessary in the 

 other." Any one who- had given the matter careful con- 

 sideration could even at that time have known where the 

 "ignorant" really were. That in both cases chemical pro- 

 cesses take place is clear and undisputed, but the material- 

 ists forgot entirely that even in the laboratory it was not 

 the mere contact of the elements that produced 

 the urea; a chemist was needed and in this case 

 not any one arbitrarily chosen, but a man of the 

 genius and knowledge of a Woehler to watch over the 

 process, and utilize and partly direct the laws of chemistry 

 in order tO' obtain the desired result. Hence it was even 

 then absurd to deny vital force as a consequence of that 

 experiment. Since, however, it was well-adapted for 

 materialistic purposes, this denial was proclaimed with the 

 soimd of trumpet throughout the land, and repeated again 

 and again with surprising tenacity, with the result that 

 even thoughtful investigators rejected vital force almost 

 universally in the seventies and eighties. £^-, Uk-cvv •l^^-'i^' V 



54 



