Dedicated to Professor Ferdinand Bohlmann on the occasion of his 60th birthday Pyramidal cations are discussed with reference to their role as the connecting link between organic and inorganic chemistry. The electronic structure of these ions is treated with respect to their physical and chemical properties, namely charge distribution, geometry, and quenching reactions with nucleophiles. The chemistry in the gas phase of certain carbenium ions, in particular the scrambling of carbon atoms, is readily explicable by invoking transition states or intermediates of pyramidal structure. Moreover, the behavior of unimolecular processes can be understood in terms of transition states in which a hydrogen molecule is positioned as a "side-on" or an "end-on" ligand. Volume 20 -Number 12 December 1981 Pages 991 -1 066 Angew. Chem. Inr. Ed. Engl. 20. 991-1003 (1981) 0 Verlag Chemie GmbH. 6940 Weinheim, 1981 0570-0833/81/1212-0991 $02.50/0 ( 73) Nu ( 74) NU I \ I I D Scheme 7. Quenching of pyramidal cations by nucleophiles Nue. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 20. 991-1003 (198I) Received: July 8, 1981 [Z 390 IE] German version: Angew. Chem. 93, 1046 (1981) 11) a) H. Hogeueen. P. W. Kwant. Acc. Chem. Res. 8, 413 (1975); b) H. C. Brown (with comments by P. uon R. Schleyer): The Nonclassical Ion Problem, Plenum Press, New York 1977, Chap. 1, p. 17.121 a) R. N. Grimes: Carboranes, Academic Press, New York 1970; b) W. N .