in the reported experiments, cotton fabric was subjected to thermal treatment for durations ranging from 0. 5 to 5 min at a temperature range of 160 $degree$ to 220 $degree$ c. in comparison with untreated cotton, the copper number decreased after heating cotton for up to 3 min at 160 $degree$ , 180 $degree$ , and 190 $degree$ c but increased when heating was prolonged to 5 min thermal treatment at 200 $degree$ c or above caused an appreciable increase in the copper number. the carboxyl content increased with time of heating, attained a maximum, and then fell down to reach values which in some cases were lower than that of untreated cotton the tensile strength remained practically unimpaired after thermal treatment of the cotton for up to 2 min, regardless of the temperature used within the range studied. a loss in tensile strength of ca. 9 and 13 was observed with fabrics treated for 5 min at 160 $degree$ and 180 $degree$ c, respectively. the highest dye exhaustion was obtained on cotton which was thermally treated at 180 $degree$ c prior to dyeing, while the lowest dye exhaustion was obtained on cotton heated at 220 $degree$ c. thermal treatment at 160 $degree$ c left susceptibility of cotton toward the dyestuff practically unaltered. 18 refs