. . "The cooled mixtures are diluted with water, the organic layers separated, dried over a suitable drying agent such as sodium sulfate, the dried solutions filtered and concentrated and the residual products isolated by a suitableprocedure such as vacuum distillation or conversion to an acid addition salt which is further purified by crystallization.PREPARATION 1.alpha.Phenyl-.alpha.-(2-pyridyl)aceto" . .