The time-course of myelin lattice swelling and its reversal in dissected peripheral nerves was determined by small-angle x-ray diffraction using a position-sensitive proportional detector. The process of swelling can take place either in several hours or in less than 1 h depending on pretreatment of the nerves. The reversal of swelling was always completed within 1 h. The rapid structural transitions involved the disordering of membrane pairs as indicated by the transient appearance of a continuous intensity distribution similar to the membrane pair transform for myelin. The slow transitions involved the gradual replacement of the discrete reflections from the native structure by the reflections from the swollen lattice. Myelin membrane arrays reformed in normal Ringer's solution were much more stable to subsequent swelling than arrays reformed in Ca+2 and Mg+2-free Ringer's. These results suggest that these ions participate in stabilizing the interactions between the external surfaces of adjacent membrane pairs.