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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