ABSTRACT
In 1779, Felice Fontana, using a six-power hand-held magnifying lens, described what
appeared to be spiral bands surrounding the peripheral nerve. He hypothesized that
these bands were due to an optical illusion related to the underlying undulations
of the individual nerve fibers, which he was the first to observe with an early microscope.
The present study examines the historical basis of Fontana's work, confirms with intrafascicular
dissection that the bands are an illusion created by unstretched nerve fibers, and
relates their clinical disappearance to current concepts of the pathophysiology of
chronic nerve compression and nerve injury.