Customer Reviews

Biochemistry : Volumes 1-4

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Vitalism is a profoundly science-ejected concept, though many CAM or 'natural health' cabals falsely claim that vitalism survives scientific scrutiny.

I quote:

"for a long time, many people believed that reactions in living organisms (as distinct from those in nonliving systems) required a special `vital' force. Only when this theory of `vitalism' was discarded could development of biochemistry proceed [...via] Lavoisier [...who] conducted experiments on respiration and combustion and showed that both processes converted organic matter to carbon dioxide and water [...and] Wohler [...who] succeeded in synthesizing urea [...] vitalism was finally rejected as a scientific theory when Eduard Buchner (1896) obtained a cell-free extract from yeast that was capable of carrying out fermentation [...and] Sumner (1926) crystallized the enzyme urease from jack beans [...] at least for central themes have come to characterize biochemistry: 1. reactions carried out by living organisms obey the laws of chemistry and physics that describe reactions in the laboratory [...] no special forces such as `vitalism,' or special processes like `spontaneous generation,' play a role in the synthesis, degradation, and interconversions of compounds found in living cells [xxv]."

-r.c.