Ranvier Anat.
(rɑ̃vje)
[The name of Louis Antoine Ranvier (1835–1922), French histologist.]
node of Ranvier (also Ranvier('s) node): each of the interruptions of the myelin which occur regularly along the sheaths of myelinated nerves; (described by Ranvier in Le{cced}ons sur l'Histologie du Système Nerveux (1878) vii. 110–12).
| 1881 T. E. Satterthwaite Man. Histol. ix. 110 Each fibre has a double contour and is divided at tolerably regular intervals by transverse divisions, which are now known as Ranvier's nodes. 1885 [see node 3 c]. 1912 J. D. Lickley Nervous Syst. ii. 11 On the outside of the medullary sheath..is a thin structureless membrane known as the neurilemma... It is a continuous sheath and is not interrupted at the nodes of Ranvier. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. VIII. 198/2 The all-or-nothing nerve impulse..was shown to arise at the first Ranvier node adjacent to the ending. 1968 Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. I. xiv. 4/1 Generally, the greater the diameter of the fibre the less frequent are the nodes of Ranvier, so that the internodal length of a nerve fibre 5 µm in diameter is about 0·5 mm while that of a 10 µm fibre is about 2 mm. |