 The scheme by Kline is based on the reaction of 2,4,6-cycloheptatriene-7-carboxylic acid with methylamine.This is a modified version of by Grundmann and Ottmann.In the accompanying patent these same authors react their methylecgonidine with two equivalents of PhLi to form a tertiary alcohol by "hard" addition to the ester and not "soft" Michael addition.