A recent publication on the use of sodium hydroxidedimethyl sulfoxide in the alkylation of phenylacetonitrile'has led us to comment on some of our results using sodium hydride- dimethyl sulfoxide. The a-alkylation reactions of nitriles have been surnrnari~ ed~~~ and the use of sodium hydride in dimethyl sulfoxide has been described by Bl~ omfield.~ We have found that good yields of 1-arylcycloalkanecarbonitriles can be obtained techniques ...