Life Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Vitalism === {{Main|Vitalism}} Vitalism is the belief that there is a non-material life-principle. This originated with [[Georg Ernst Stahl]] (17th century), and remained popular until the middle of the 19th century. It appealed to philosophers such as [[Henri Bergson]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], and [[Wilhelm Dilthey]],<ref>{{cite book |first1=Sanford |last1=Schwartz |title=C.S. Lewis on the Final Frontier: Science and the Supernatural in the Space Trilogy |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-988839-9 |page=56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4hQLdPtJe9EC&pg=PA56 |access-date=10 August 2023 |archive-date=13 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413194800/https://books.google.com/books?id=4hQLdPtJe9EC&pg=PA56 |url-status=live }}</ref> anatomists like [[Xavier Bichat]], and chemists like [[Justus von Liebig]].<ref name=Wilkinson>{{cite journal |first1=Ian |last1=Wilkinson |title=History of Clinical Chemistry – Wöhler & the Birth of Clinical Chemistry |journal=The Journal of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine |volume=13 |issue=4 |year=1998 |url=http://www.ifcc.org/ifccfiles/docs/130304003.pdf |access-date=27 December 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105031229/http://www.ifcc.org/ifccfiles/docs/130304003.pdf |archive-date=5 January 2016 }}</ref> Vitalism included the idea that there was a fundamental difference between organic and inorganic material, and the belief that [[organic material]] can only be derived from living things. This was disproved in 1828, when [[Friedrich Wöhler]] prepared [[urea]] from inorganic materials.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Ueber künstliche Bildung des Harnstoffs |author=Friedrich Wöhler |journal=[[Annalen der Physik und Chemie]] |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=253–256 |year=1828 |doi=10.1002/andp.18280880206 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15097k/f261.chemindefer |bibcode=1828AnP....88..253W |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110094705/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15097k/f261.chemindefer |archive-date=10 January 2012 |author-link=Friedrich Wöhler }}</ref> This [[Wöhler synthesis]] is considered the starting point of modern [[organic chemistry]]. It is of historical significance because for the first time an [[organic compound]] was produced in [[inorganic compound|inorganic]] reactions.<ref name=Wilkinson/> During the 1850s [[Hermann von Helmholtz]], anticipated by [[Julius Robert von Mayer]], demonstrated that no energy is lost in muscle movement, suggesting that there were no "vital forces" necessary to move a muscle.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Anson |last1=Rabinbach |title=The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity |publisher=University of California Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-520-07827-7 |pages=124–125 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5ZBNv-zTlQC&pg=PA124 |access-date=10 August 2023 |archive-date=13 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413194755/https://books.google.com/books?id=e5ZBNv-zTlQC&pg=PA124 |url-status=live }}</ref> These results led to the abandonment of scientific interest in vitalistic theories, especially after [[Eduard Buchner]]'s demonstration that alcoholic fermentation could occur in cell-free extracts of yeast.<ref>{{cite book | isbn= 978-8437-033280 | title= New Beer in an Old Bottle. Eduard Buchner and the Growth of Biochemical Knowledge | editor= Cornish-Bowden Athel | year=1997 | publisher = Universitat de València | place=Valencia, Spain}}</ref> Nonetheless, belief still exists in [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] theories such as [[homoeopathy]], which interprets diseases and sickness as caused by disturbances in a hypothetical vital force or life force.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ncahf.org/pp/homeop.html |title=NCAHF Position Paper on Homeopathy |date=February 1994 |publisher=National Council Against Health Fraud |access-date=12 June 2012 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225185228/https://www.ncahf.org/pp/homeop.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page