The developments in organic synthesis in recent years have been as dramatic as anythat have occurred in laboratory sciences. One need only mention a few terms to under-stand that chemical systems that did not exist twenty years ago have become as much apart of the repertoire of the synthetic organic chemist as borosilicate glassware. The listof such terms would include the Wittig reaction, enamines, carbenes, hydridereductions, the Birch reduction, hydroboration, and so on..