A study of the slow oxidation of trimethylamine shows that the reaction has no autocatalytic character and rapidly becomes inhibited as the products accumulate, eventually ceasing completely while the major part of the initial reactants remains unchanged. Both the rate and extent of oxidation are reduced by increased surface but additions of an inert gas have no influence on the reaction. The main stable products are formaldehyde and dimethylamine together with smaller amounts of nitrogen and carbon monoxide; neither methylamine nor ammonia nor nitrogen oxides can be detected at any stage of reaction. Separate experiments on the influence of additives show that dimethylamine, although it acts as an inhibitor, does not exert a sufficiently powerful effect to account for the observed results, and it is clear that some other compound with more pronounced inhibiting properties must also be formed in small quantities. It is suggested that
NN
-dimethylhydroxylamine, which is an exceptionally powerful inhibitor, may be formed either by oxidation of (CH
3
)
2
N. radicals or by some heterogeneous process. The absence in the present system of primary amines, which are among the principal products of triethylamine oxidation, may be due to the fact that for steric reasons intramolecular attack of intermediate peroxy-radicals derived from trimethylamine cannot take place.