BENZYL ALCOHOL (PHENYL CARBINOL) occurs com bined with benzoic acid in Peru balsam, with cinnamic acid in Tolu balsam, with acetic acid in essential oil of jasmine, and also in storax. It is a colourless liquid, with a faint aromatic smell, boiling at 206° C and having the composition It may be synthetically prepared by the reduction of benzoyl chlo ride; by the action of nitrous acid on benzylamine; by boiling benzyl chloride with an aqueous solution of potassium carbonate, or by the so-called "Cannizzaro" reaction (1881) in which benzal dehyde is shaken up with caustic potash, one half of the aldehyde being oxidized to benzoic acid, and the other half reduced to the alcohol: = On oxi dation with nitric acid it is converted into benzaldehyde whilst chromic acid oxidizes it to benzoic acid. If reduced by hydriodic acid and phosphorus at 140° C it gives rise to toluene ; toluene and benzoic acid result from its distillation with alcoholic potash.