IN their criticism of our paper1, Chesbro and Hedrick make some points that are indeed well taken. Their objection to the implication that bond-strength is a function of pH is undoubtedly valid.

Using NMR to follow the reaction process, Shi, et al. first tested acid hydrolysis using DCl added to D 2 O in a solution containing diester and the cavitand. One end of the ester is deep within ...