Letter

Abstract

Prof. Meyer's brief sketch of the history of the development of starch structures neglects some essential facts. Before starch could be formulated as consisting of repeating maltose units, proof had to be provided that maltose was preformed in starch and was not a product of synthesis by the enzymes present during starch degradation¹. Moreover, the constitutional formula of maltose had to be determined before any such formulation of starch could be attempted². The end-group method of assay showed that if starch were represented as a very large molecule, it possessed many end-groups. As early as 1936³, in an article on the size of polysaccharide molecules, I made these statements: “it has never been claimed by the present author that the chemical end-group method of determination of chain length corresponds with the particle size”, and also “a measurement of particle size must take account of the physical molecule and the molecular aggregate. This may involve not only aggregation to increase the length of chain but also the lateral combination of the chains.”