Medical Relations
By: Max • Essay • 1,053 Words • March 24, 2010 • 883 Views
Medical Relations
Chemistry has been called the science of what things are. Its intent is the exploration of
the nature of the materials that fabricate our physical environment, why they hold the
different properties that depict them, how their atomic structure may be fathomed, and
how they may be manipulated and changed.
Although organic reactions have been conducted by man since the discovery of fire, the
science of Organic chemistry did not develop until the turn of the eighteenth century,
mainly in France at first, then in Germany, later on in England. By far the largest
variety of materials that bombard us are made up of organic elements. The beginning of
the Ninetieth century was also the dawn of chemistry, all organic substances were
understood as all being materials produced by living organisms: wood, bone, cloth, food,
medicines, and the complex substances that configure the human body. Inorganic material
was believed to come from the Earth: salt, metals, and rock, just to name a few.
Because of the human's wonder of natural life, organic materials were believed to possess
an enigmatic "Vital Force." Thus organic chemistry was separated from inorganic
chemistry, and it became it's own field of science. By the turn of the Nineteenth the
"Vital Force" theory was immensely discredited, but this branch of science still stayed
separated from inorganic chemistry. Back when Organic chemistry was the chemistry of
living matter, Professor Wohler succeeded in synthesizing in the laboratory an organic
compound previously observed in living tissue as Urea. Professor Wohler made this organic
compound from non-living chemical substance, Ammonium Cyanate. He evaporated a solution
of Ammonium Cyanate to produce Urea. Thus rendering the "Vital Force" theory to be with
flaws. Other famous experiments proved the vitalism theory was wrong. In 1845 Kolbe
synthesized acetic acid, the chief component in vinegar, in a flow of reactions starting
with Carbon, the experiment is demonstrated better defined since acetic acid (C6H4O2) is
a carbon-carbon bond. The theory of vitalism, like many other scientific theories,
disappeared slowly under the weight of accumulated evidence rather than as a consequence
of any one brilliant and enlightening experiment.
Structural theory, which developed in the 1860's, started the second major period of
growth in the organic chemistry field. The development of a detailed picture, by using
pure reasoning of both atomic organization and the shapes of molecules stands as a great
milestone of the development of human intellect. At almost the same point in time, Kekule
in Germany, and Couper of Scotland suggested that atoms in molecules are fused together
by bonds. Their theory was that every atom is distinguished by having the same number of
bond availability or valence number, where ever that particular atom appears in any
compound. The main notability of organic compounds is having strong carbon to carbon
bonds. This was recognized in the theory, and was used to help understand large
molecules, possessing many bonded carbon atoms. Carbon is the cement that holds their
molecules together. So far, this theory has gone through rigorous testing, and has not
been proven inadequate to this day, as of now it is a law.
Kekule and Couper's theory was not all without fault; it is surprising
that they did not
recognize atoms as three-dimensional objects