Vitalism

Vitalism is the idea that life has special properties that separate it from other types of matter. While it was once popular with early scientists, scientific evidence now overwhelmingly suggests that living things follow all the same rules of physics and chemistry as nonliving things. This makes vitalism an example of a superseded theory.

 History 
 Development of modern chemistry 
Vitalism began to be seriously challenged in the 19th century. In 1828, Friedrich Wöhler discovered the Wöhler synthesis, which makes the organic compound urea from the inorganic compound ammonium cyanate. This is commonly called the end of vitalism, but this is criticised by both chemists and historians as being an oversimplifed myth. Many chemists at the time, most prominently Wöhler's teacher Jöns Jacob Berzelius, remained vitalists well after Wöhler published his work. Further developments in organic synthesis, such as the preparation of acetic acid from inorganic carbon disulfide by Hermann Kolbe, saw the end of vitalism in chemistry by the late 19th century.

Prominent vitalists like Hans Dreich and Johannes Reinke were active in biology and philosophy into the early 20th century. By the 1960s molecular biology had advanced enough that vitalism was considered a superseded scientific theory, with Francis Crick describing it as "what everyone believed yesterday, and [vitalists] believe today, only cranks will believe tomorrow."

 Sources 

Category:Pseudoscience