By reduction of amides

Primary amines having the SAME number of carbon atoms as the starting material can be obtained by reducing an amide, using either lithium aluminium hydride dissolved in dry ether, or sodium dissolved in ethanol. In this reduction, the amide's carbonyl oxygen (C=O) is removed entirely and replaced by two hydrogen atoms on that very same carbon, converting the -CO-NH2 group directly into a -CH2-NH2 group without altering the length of the carbon skeleton in any way -- this is the key point of contrast with the Hofmann degradation of section 13.3.6, which instead starts from the same kind of amide but ends up REMOV …