Variations in Axonal Diameters of Myelinated Nerve Fibres: Apparent or Real?

Abstract

IN a paper read to the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland on November 29, Miss B. Higgs, of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, put forward clear evidence that fixatives may affect the relative diameters of a nerve fibre in the nodal and internodal regions. Although readily accepting her findings, which provide at least a partial explanation for the differences in axonal diameters seen in fixed material, it is obvious that such a fixation artefact cannot explain the apparent diameter variations recorded as existing in living nerve fibres by de Renyi (1929).