neurilemma

Note: The Latin term neurilema was introduced by the German physician and anatomist Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813) in Exercitationum anatomicarum fasciculus primus, De structura nervorum (Halle, 1796), p. 1. Reil states that he prefers the Greek-derived word neurilema because the Latin expression tunica nervosa or nervea seems to afford an indirect sense—"covering made of nerve matter"—whereas his intended sense is presumably "covering of the nerve." The term was taken up as névrilème by the French anatomist Xavier Bichat in Anatomie générale, appliqué à la physiologie et à la médecine, première partie, tome premier (Paris, 1801), p. 137 passim.