That so-called alcoholic polyneuritis and the alcoholic type of pellagra are deficiency diseases is now commonly accepted. A review of all the many studies which tend to prove this is not warranted here, but the evidence may be briefly abstracted as follows: Shattuck1in 1928 and Minot2in 1929 suggested that avitaminosis might be an important factor in the etiology of alcoholic polyneuritis, because of the similarity of this disease to beriberi. Wechsler3in 1930 and 1933 reported cases of polyneuritis in patients taking an inadequate diet. The polyneuritis was greatly benefited by the proper diet. Minot, Straus and Cobb4found that almost all their patients with this condition had been on a deficient diet. They stated that "dietary deficiency, probably especially the lack of vitamin B1, plays an important rôle in the production of `alcoholic' neuritis." Spies and De Wolf5allowed ten