AbstractA study of the swelling of Acala 4‐42 cotton in aqueous alkalis and acids has been carried out. The degree of swelling of the cotton in the reagents has been indicated by measurement of the variations in width of the cotton at its widest point. The nature of the swelling process whether interfibrillar or intrafibrillar has been deduced from microscopical and x‐ray evidence. It has been shown that a similarity of shape of the swelling curves, i.e., an equal degree of swelling in the same or other reagents, does not imply the same mechanism of swelling. The results are more readily explained in terms of the crystalline‐fibril theory than by the fringe‐micellar theory, especially when high degrees of swelling have been a
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