Urine Led to the Foundation of Chemistry

Besides the discovery of phosphorus in elemental form (the fact that phosphorus is a chemical element was understood only a century later after its discovery, when the concept of chemical element has been defined, by Lavoisier together with other French chemists), urine is also connected to what has been considered in 1828 as the first synthesis of an organic compound (urea synthesized by Friedrich Wöhler). Before its first synthesis, urea had always been extracted from urine.<p>The synthesis of urea from anorganic substances was a great sensation at that time, at least as much as the discovery of phosphorus, because it discredited the belief that the organic substances must be somehow different from the anorganic substances, i.e. they must contain some kind of mysterious &quot;vital force&quot;.<p>Today, urea is no longer considered a true organic substance, because it is too simple, it does not contain carbon-carbon bonds, but it was good that this was not known in 1828, because encouraged by this result many other chemists have soon succeeded to synthesize more complex organic substances from anorganic substances.

I wonder if this history was the inspiration for the parts of Neil Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle where the protagonists had to boil vats and vats of urine to make phosphorus?

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theinventors.org&#x2F;library&#x2F;inventors&#x2F;blmatch.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theinventors.org&#x2F;library&#x2F;inventors&#x2F;blmatch.htm</a><p>Others claim that Boyle did not create a usable match

People who want to learn chemistry from first principles in a fun way should read Jules Verne &#x27;s &quot;Mysterious Island&quot; or, in manga or anime , &quot;Dr Stone&quot;. Lots of fun.