Experiments on the decomposition of methanol in the presence of catalysts composed of the oxides of zinc and chromium show that an excess of chromium oxide gives rise to reactions producing appreciable amounts of carbon dioxide and unsaturated hydrocarbons. With catalysts containing excess zinc oxide the main products are carbon monoxide and hydrogen, a sharp maximum in activity occurring at a catalyst composition of about Zn7SCr22. The relatively constant percentage of formaldehyde indicates its intermediate formation in the decomposition of methanol.Using the same catalysts for the reverse reaction, it is found that the production of methanol from carbon mon-A PREVIOUS paper from this laboratory (7) dealt with the atmospheric decomposition of methanol by catalysts composed of zinc and copper. The results