On dry distillation it is resolved into trimethylamine and methyl alcohol.
It is also prepared by heating trimethylamine hydrochloride.
Whether the strong odour of trimethylamine evolved by the spores of Tilletia attracts insects is not known.
Moreover, while methylamine, dimethylamine, and trimethylamine increase in basicity corresponding to the introduction of successive methyl groups, phenylamine or aniline, diphenylamine, and triphenylamine are in decreasing order of basicity, the salts of diphenylamine being decomposed by water.
In 1867 Wurtz prepared neurine synthetically by the action of trimethylamine on glycol-chlorhydrin, and in 1872 he discovered aldol, pointing out its double character as at once an alcohol and an aldehyde.