Augustus Waller. Portrait of Augustus Volney Waller (1816-70), British physiologist. Waller was a microscopist who studied the nervous system. He studied degeneration and regeneration of nerves and discovered Wallerian degeneration of nerve fibres when they are detached from the nerve cell. He also studied the autonomic nervous system, especially the response of the iris in the eye to light stimuli. He also showed that white blood cells (lymphocytes) actively pass through the walls of capillary blood vessels to deal with any infection at the sites of tissue inflammation.