A 'compound' thermodynamic system may comprise several simple thermodynamic sub-systems, mutually separated by one or several walls of definite respective permeabilities. It is often convenient to consider such a compound system initially isolated in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, then affected by a thermodynamic operation of increase of some inter-sub-system wall permeability, to initiate a transient thermodynamic process, so as to generate a final new state of thermodynamic equilibrium. This idea was used, and perhaps introduced, by Carathéodory. In a compound system, initially isolated in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, a reduction of a wall permeability does not effect a thermodynamic process, nor a change of thermodynamic state. This difference expresses the Second Law of thermodynamics. It illustrates that increase in entropy measures increase in dispersal of energy, due to increase of accessibility of microstates.