The interaction between aldehydes and alkaiies effecting simultaneously the oxidation and the reduction of the aldehyde to an acid and an alcohol, respectively, is termed the Cannizzaro reaction ,).This reaction is commonly represented by the following equation wherein R is an alkyl or aryl radical and MOH a fairly strong base, usually sodium or potassium hydroxyde :Loew 3, omitting description of method and record of quantitative data, recorded the highly significant observation that the interaction of aqueous solutions of formaldehyde and sodium hydroxide yielded a very small amount of hydrogen, and that if cuprous oxide were added to the reaction mixture, it was reduced to metallic copper, which apparently catalyzed a reaction liberating pure hydrogen. This reaction may be represented by the following equation (a):Oxides of other metals noted by Loew did not give this result, but later Vanino 4, using silver nitrate, which was reduced to silver, also obtained hydrogen but to a lesser extent.Birstein and Lobanow 5, studying the kinetics of the formation of formic acid according to the Cannizzaro reaction, gave data showing that the reaction is probably trimolecular, but observed that two consecutive reactions may take place. The first is according to the above equation (a) wherein one molecule of formaldehyde is oxidized to sodium formate with the formation of a molecule of hydrogen, which, in turn, in the second reaction, reduces a second molecule of formaldehyde to methyl alcohol according to the following equation (b) : l) A synopsis of a section of the Doctorate Thesis of J. Waide Price, based upon a preliminary investigation by Jay J. Uber, continued and extended by J. Waide Price. 9 ) Cannizzaro, Ann. 88, 129 (1853); 90. 252 (1854). s, b e w , Ber. 20, 144 (1887). ' ) Vanino. Ber. 36. 3304 (1903). + n H O M -R(OM), + nH,. ") Fry, Schulze and Weitkamp. J. Am. Chem. SOC. 46, 2268 (1924): Fry and Schulze. ibid. 48, 959 (1926): Fry and Otto, ibid. 50, 1120 (1928): Fry andschulzr. ibid. 50, 1131 (1928): Fry and Otto. ibid. 50. 1138 (1928). ') Fry and Cameron, J. Am. Cbem. SOC. 49, 864 (1927): Fry and Bowman, ibid. 52. 1531 (1930). ") A. H.