Louis-Antoine Ranvier (2 October 1835 – 22 March 1922) was a French

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

, pathologist, anatomist and histologist, who discovered the nodes of Ranvier, regularly spaced discontinuities of the myelin sheath, occurring at varying intervals along the length of a nerve fiber.

Career

Ranvier was born and studied medicine at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, graduating in 1865 from the Ecole Préparatoire de Médecine et de Pharmacie. He moved to Paris after receiving the internship of Parisian hospitals. Here he founded a small private research laboratory on Rue Christine along with fellow intern Victor André Cornil, and together they later offered a course in histology to medical students which involved the careful examination of tissues under a microscope. Their course was unique in the time as microscopy had not been viewed favourably in medicine especially by Henri Ducrotay de Blainville (1777-1850) and

Auguste Comte Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...

(1798-1857). Their histology course material became an influential textbook on histopathology. In 1867, Ranvier entered the Collège de France and worked as an assistant to Claude Bernard. In 1875, he was appointed to its chair of general anatomy. Ranvier_1882

In 1878, Ranvier discovered the nodes along nerves which received his name. He conducted experiments on nerve growth, repair, and regeneration. Other anatomical structures bearing his name are the Merkel-Ranvier cells, melanocyte-like cells in the basal layer of the epidermis that contain catecholamine granules; and Ranvier's tactile disks, a special type of

sensory nerve A sensory nerve, or afferent nerve, is a nerve that contains exclusively afferent nerve fibers. Nerves containing also motor fibers are called mixed nerve, mixed. Afferent nerve fibers in a sensory nerve carry sensory system, sensory information ...

ending. In 1897, he founded the scientific journal ''Archives d'anatomie microscopique'' with Edouard-Gérard Balbiani. In 1897, Ranvier was named an honorary member of the American Association for Anatomy. Some of his most notable students included Ferdinand-Jean Darier, Justin Marie Jolly, Joaquín Albarrán, Luis Simarro Lacabra, Joseph-Louis Renaut, and Fredrik Georg Gade.

Retirement

Ranvier retired in 1900 to his estate in Thélys ( Roanne) and died at Vendranges in 1922.

Bibliography

* Ranvier, Louis-Antoine and Victor André Cornil. 1869. ''Manuel d'histologie pathologique''. Paris * Ranvier, Louis-Antoine. 1875–1882.
Traité technique d'histologie
'. Paris: F. Savy * Ranvier, Louis-Antoine. 1878. ''Leçons sur l'histologie du système nerveux'', par M. L. Ranvier, recueillies par M.Ed. Weber. Paris * Ranvier, Louis-Antoine. 1880. ''Leçons d'anatomie générale sur le système musculaire'', par L. Ranvier, recueillies par M. J. Renaut. Paris * Ranvier, Louis-Antoine. 1885. ''Exposé des titres et des travaux de M. L. Ranvier''. Paris

References

External links

Ranvier, Louis-Antoine
at The Virtual Laboratory {{DEFAULTSORT:Ranvier 1835 births 1922 deaths 19th-century French physicians French anatomists French pathologists Members of the French Academy of Sciences