ABSTRACT
A very large number of the known definite organic compounds, in which carbon is the characteristic central element, can be produced by purely artificial processes in the chemical laboratory, independently of any operation in which plant or animal life is concerned. The history of organic synthesis may be said to have begun in 1828 when Wohler observed the change of ammonium cyanate into urea and, though not ended, may be said to have culminated in the methods by which Emil Fischer has built up the complex molecules of some of the proteins. Something has been made of a supposed resemblance between cell membranes and the curious forms which some of the very simplest organisms assume and the films and cavities formed by inorganic colloids in the process of drying, or when in contact with other matters in a different state of hydration.
