Waller, Augustus Volney

Augustus Volney Waller (1816–70) was born in East Kent, England. He studied medicine in Paris and set up practice in London. He worked with Julius Budge in Bonn, Germany (on vasomotor nerves and the cilio-spinal center) and with Pierre Flourens in Paris. He studied nerves supplying the tongue by sectioning them at different levels and described the changes in subsequent days following nerve section. The Wallerian method became an important research tool. Although not the first to observe histological changes in degenerating nerves, he gave the fullest description and was the first to recognize their wider significance.