The kinetics of therearrangement reaction for a series of 1-alkyl-2-alkylthio (or allylthio, arylthio, cycloalkylthio) imidazoles has been studied at various temperatures. The rearrangement and hydrolysis results have been compared with those of 1-alkyl-2-methylthio-Δ-2-imidazolines and 1-alkyl-2-methylthio-Δ-2-tetrahydropyrimidines. Electronic and steric effects are discussed and a parallel between pKaand rearrangement is proposed. The limit of this parallel is either a structural effect such as direct (orthoeffect) or indirect (cycle deformation) steric interactions or geometric modifications of the heterocycles studied (five- or six-membered cycles). All these results permitted the coherent choice of the amplification compound of a nonconventional photographic process.