Kirchhoff and starch hydrolysis

The influence of the acid in this operation appears to be limited to increasing the fluidity of the aqueous solution of the starch, so helping the latter to combine with water. 

The fractional ratios between the elements in the materials isolated from living matter convinced some that the chemical processes associated with their synthesis were somehow different from those associated with inorganic matter and incorporated some vital factor  

All simple bodies in nature are subject to the action of two powers, of which one, that of attraction, tends to unite the molecules of bodies one with another, while the other, produced by caloric, forces them apart. A certain number of these 

In the discussion which followed that paper (p. 361), one of the journal s editors, J.-J. Virey, pointed out that there were some products of inorganic chemistry that also had poorly defined compositions, notably the oils formed when cast iron was treated with acid, or when olefinic gases were burnt. He also pointed out that some chemical processes (e.g. Kirchhoff s conversion of starch into sugar with acid) resembled the effects of germination and that respiration could release simple materials such as carbonic acid and water. Thus the distinction between organic and inorganic chemistry was not as clearly defined as Beral had portrayed it, and it warranted further study. 

The chemical literature throughout the nineteenth century uses the term body in a sense which is similar to our contemporary use of the term compound . (More generally, it is not prudent to assume that our modern definitions of chemical terms are the same as those once current.) Virey s remarks clearly illustrate one other feature of the chemistry of the early nineteenth century that its experiments were much affected by impure reagents, even though the inferences drawn from them ring true in the late twentieth century. 

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