History
The myelin sheath of long nerves was discovered and named by German pathological anatomist Rudolf Virchow in 1854. French pathologist and anatomist Louis-Antoine Ranvier later discovered the nodes, or gaps, in the myelin sheath that now bear his name. Born in Lyon, Ranvier was one of the most prominent histologists of the late 19th century and was the chairman of General Anatomy at the Collège de France in 1875. His refined histological techniques and his work on both injured and normal nerve fibers became world renowned. His observations on fiber nodes and the degeneration and regeneration of cut fibers had a great influence on Parisian neurology at the Salpêtrière. Ranvier abandoned pathological studies in 1867 and became an assistant of Claude Bernard. Soon afterwards, he discovered gaps in sheaths of nerve fibers, which were later called the Nodes of Ranvier. This discovery later led Ranvier to careful histological examination of myelin sheaths and Schwann cells.
Read more about this topic: Myelin Sheath Gap
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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