A portrait in history: Augustus Volney Waller

Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Sep 2002 by Jay, Venita

In a short life span of 54 years, of which a little more than 10 years were spent on research, Augustus Volney Walter offered epoch-making contributions to the understanding of the structure of the nervous system. Waller's pioneering work marked the starting point for the neuron theory and provided an ingenious technique for studying neuroanatomical pathways and connections.

Waller (1816-1870) was born in Faversham, England, on December 21, 1816. He was raised in France until his father's death in 1830, when he returned to his native England. Waller returned to France to study medicine in Paris and graduated from the University of Paris in 1840. He then returned to England to a successful practice in Kensington.

Even while still a student at the University of Paris, his insatiable curiosity and desire for original investigation would lead him to pursue research in physiology. In the tongue of a frog, Waller found an interesting model for his experimental work. In 1839, Waller embarked on a study of the circulation in a frog's tongue. In later years, he would exploit this model for his pioneering work in neurophysiology.

Based on his studies of a frog's tongue, Waller made important observations on diapedesis of leukocytes and reported that pus originated from "the colourless of spherical corpuscles from the capillaries." This work was published in 1846 under the title "Microscopic Observations on the Perforation of Capillaries by the Corpuscles of the Blood, and on the Origin of Mucus and Pus-Globules."

To every student of pathology, Waller's name is synonymous with "Wallerian degeneration." Using a simple technique of cutting the nerves of a frog's tongue, Waller found that the distal stump would soon degenerate, while the proximal stump remained relatively intact. From his observations, the astute Waller inferred that nerve cells nourished the nerve fibers. This important work, entitled "Experiments on the Section of the Glossopharyngeal and Hypoglossal Nerves of the Frog and Observations of the Alterations Produced Thereby in the Structure of Their Primitive Fibers," was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1850. Waller's finding that the proximal stump and the cell body did not degenerate was subsequently modified with application of better staining techniques.

Waller was elected as a fellow to the Royal Society in London in 1851. Further accounts of Wallerian degeneration appeared in a series of papers published by the Academy of Sciences in Paris during the years 1851 to 1856. The principal paper of this series was entitled "Nouvelle methode pour l'etude du systeme nerveux, applicable A l'investigation de la distribution anatomique des cordons nerveux." The Wallerian method of tracing the origin and the course of nerve tracts became widely used by other investigators, including August-Henri Forel, and helped to establish the neuron theory.

In 1851, Waller abandoned his practice to devote himself entirely to research and moved to Bonn, Germany. During his 5 years in Bonn, Waller turned to his second major focus in neurophysiology, the autonomic nervous system. In collaboration with Julius Ludwig Budge, Waller studied the pupillary action and nerve supply to the iris. Their important observations were reported in 1851 and 1852 in the Comptes Rendus, published by the French Academy of Sciences.

With carefully executed experiments, Budge and Waller showed the influence of the cervical portion of the sympathetic nerve in dilatation of the pupil. Using the Wallerian method to trace the dilator fibers, they followed the fibers in the sectioned sympathetic trunk to the first and second thoracic segments of the cord. If this region was stimulated in an intact animal, there was pupillary dilatation; if the cervical sympathetic nerve was sectioned, pupillary dilatation was abolished. Budge and Waller named the area controlling the dilatation of the pupils the "ciliospinal center." Their work on the ciliospinal center won Budge and Waller the 1852 Monthyon Prize, awarded by the French Academy of Sciences. They went on to demonstrate the action of the cervical sympathetic nerves on vasoconstriction.

In 1856, the Academy of Sciences awarded Waller the Monthyon Prize for a second time in recognition of the Wallerian method. Waller also received a medal from the Royal Society of London for his studies on nerve degeneration. He delivered the 1870 Croonian Lecture before the Royal Society of London.

Waller moved from Bonn to Pierre Flourens' laboratory in Paris. A debilitating fever affected his health for 2 years. Moving to England, Waller accepted a professorship in physiology in Birmingham. Still suffering from ill health and a cardiac condition, Waller moved to Bruges, Belgium. He resumed practice in Geneva in 1868 and continued working until his death on September 18, 1870, which was attributed to coronary disease.

Augustus Volney Waller left an unparalleled legacy in physiology. His son, Augustus Desire Waller, would also make history as a distinguished physiologist noted for his contributions to electrocardiography.