Abstract
Measurements of the thermal diffuse X-ray scattering from sodium chloride are described which extend the range of the measurements made by Buyers and Smith (1966). The measurements confirm that the usual theory of thermal diffuse scattering, which assumes rigid ions and harmonic lattice waves, is inadequate to explain all details of the observed scattering. It is shown that a theory which includes the effects of ionic deformations can account for the general pattern of the observed discrepancies, but an argument is given which shows that is unlikely that ionic deformation alone are sufficient to account for the magnitude of the discrepancies.