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Most general chemistry and organic chemistry textbooks describe Friedrich Wohler's synthesis of urea as the moment when modern organic chemistry was born. We surveyed 35 modern and classic texts to learn what each noted of Wohler's work. These books do not agree about the exact nature of WohIer's experiment and its significance. What is the truth about the original experiment? Who actually first recognized its significance? What immediate changes, if any, did Wohler's publication cause in the chemical world, and what changes became manifest in the longer term?
Most textbooks claim that Friedrich Wohler reported his synthesis of urea in 1828 (1-26). McQuarrie (27) claims the work was done in 1829. The original article was published in 1828, first in German (28) and French (29), and then as a review in English (30). Numerous textbook authors (31-8) do not mention Wohler's preparation of urea at all.
In the textbooks that consider Wohler's experiment, agreement is lacking on exactly what words Wohler wrote to his mentor, Berzelius, after completing the experiment. Among the variations given are "I must tell you that I can make urea without the use of kidneys, either man or dog" (3,11); "...without benefit of a kidney, a bladder, or a dog" (8); or "I must tell you that I can prepare urea without a kidney or an animal, either man or dog" (10). The statement is perhaps best translated as "...I cannot, so to say, hold my chemical water, and must tell you that I can make urea, without thereby needing to have kidneys, or anyhow, an animal, be it human or dog..."' (39).
A second disagreement noted by some textbook authors (4, fi 8-12, 14, 21, 23, 24) is that Wohler used ammonium cyanate as the starting material for this synthesis. Wade (1) is the only author to observe that the ammonium cyanate was not the initial reagent, but actually was derived "from ammonia and other inorganic chemicals." Others (2, 3, 7, 26) say the starting material was lead cyanate. Radel and Navidi (13) claim potassium cyanate initiated the reaction. Bodner and Pardue (22) state that Wohler used silver cyanate. Two texts (15, 25) note that Wohler made use of cyanic acid.
In the German article (28), Wohler discussed the reaction...