Solvent shift in \*izter of b -n * transltions of the carbonyl group is evaluated makmg use of a recently proposed com-put&or& procedure for the contmuum solvent model. Comparisons aith the discrete model and with composite discretecontinuum procedures are performed. I. Introduction In a recent paper [l] (hereafter called I) we proposed a computational procedure to represent electrostatic solvent effects on the properties of a molecular system. Thus procedure can be profitably employed. in our opinion, for the evaluation of solvent shifts in electronic spectra. In this note we present a preliminary report on this subject, specialized to the case of absorption shifts in n + Z* transitions m carbonyl compounds, and using the H2C0 molecule as a model for such compounds. Most studies on solvent shifts (for some reviews, see refs. [2-51) rely on the electrostatic approaches proposed many years ago by Kirkwood and Onsager, which reduce the solvent to a continuous polarizable dielectric containing a cavity where the solute molecule is placed. Current methods still adopt simple shapes for the cavity (a sphere or an ellipsoid) and use very simple expressions for the solute charge distribution (lower terms of a multipole expansion, or-Mulliken atomic charges) and for the polarization response to the reaction field (isotropic molecular polarizability). The procedure proposed in I exploits the electrostatic continuum model but allows one to adopt cavities of any shape, appropriate to the solute molecule, &es directly the molecular charge distribution coming * Work performed with fmancial support of rhe Istituto di Chimica Quantistica ed Energetica Molecolare de1 CNR.