Friedrich Wöhler. Image provided by Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection, Department of Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania Library.		Organic Synthesis In 1828 Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882) prepared urea "without needing a kidney, whether of man or dog," thus effectively imitating nature in the laboratory. Many had believed that organic compounds could only be created from a "vital force" found in living things (a view known as vitalism). Wöhler’s wasn’t the first synthesis of an organic compound, nor did vitalism instantly die with his discovery, but it was a big step toward seeing organic chemistry and biological processes as being governed by the same laws as those that govern nonliving matter. More important, it led to a great interest in synthesizing organic compounds from nonliving substances, like coal tar and petroleum, and eventually to the boom in German academic and industrial organic chemistry in the second half of the 1800s.