“…Reference 4 correctly noted difficulties in equating this first step with the traditionally cited mechanism of Brouwer. 2,23,24 Instead, the mechanism of Edwards and Lesage 25 (their A f E f B for the branching of a cyclohexanone cation) is the best of the early predictions: not only is it entirely composed of PCP + structures, but the two C-C bonds they draw as stretched in each of their structures (A, E, and B) are the correct ones, according to the DFT-optimized structures. We felt that drawing only one C-C bond as dotted, instead of two as in Edwards and Lesage, would allow a more comforting description of these intermediate and transition-state structures as "closed secondary" and "closed primary" carbenium ions, respectively.…”