I. Potentially reactive, bifunctional compounds 1 and 127 have been studied, and both compounds have been found to undergo rapid base-catalyzed degenerate topomerization. The topomerization processes, which in the case of 1 represents a degenerate transamidation and in the case of 127 a degenerate transesterification, have been studied in acetonitrile-d$\sb3$ and D$\sb2$O under a variety of conditions by the DNMR method. In both cases, the presence of a stable tetrahedral anion intermediate can be inferred from analysis of NMR and IR spectra. In the case of 1, the unusually high rate of topomerization can be attributed to the presence of a transannular donor-acceptor interaction and a strained urea functionality. In 127, the rate enhancemen...