It will be seen from the description presented in this chapter, that the methods and results used as a basis of investigation and of deduction, have been decidedly unfruitful in the knowledge which they have yielded of a food substance, about the existence of which there can be no question, and which is an indispensable complex for the living tissues. A field of great promise lies open here to the investigator, but we must wait until the efforts of the future have been directed along lines more logical and until investigators have viewed the problem in its proper perspective, before we shall see the successful solution of this most interesting problem.

In conclusion it appears that McCarrison is fully justified in his view that the condition commonly referred to as polyneuritis is actually not a neuritis, and the term anti-neuritic, is not descriptive of the condition to which it is applied. Degeneration of the nerves seems to be one of the later manifestations of the lack of the substance specifically concerned with the etiology of beri-beri. It would seem logical to discontinue the use of the term polyneuritis to designate the experimentally induced syndrome. In the light of McCarrison's findings the term "experimental beri-beri" is more fitting and proper.

Since the "cure" affected in tests with pigeons is actually not a cure, but merely an alleviation of one of the minor symptoms, it is obvious that the most appropriate, and most accurate conception of the subject should center upon the completeness or incompleteness of the diet with respect to a substance on a parity with an indispensable amino acid. The substance concerned with the etiology of this syndrome is apparently not an amine nor is it primarily anti-neuritic. While, for convenience, it is permissible to employ the term vitamin, with the spelling suggested by Drummond, it is most logical to use a term which has only an algebraic significance pending the acquisition of further knowledge of the chemical nature of the anti-beri-beri substance. For this purpose, the term water-soluble B appears even more appropriate, since McCarrison has published his studies, than ever before.