Augustus Desiré Waller, British Physiologist

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Waller at work in a laboratory. Augustus Desiré Waller (July 18, 1856 - March 11, 1922) was a British physiologist. He studied medicine at Aberdeen University, where he qualified in 1878 and obtained his M.D. in 1881. In 1884 he became a lecturer in physiology at St Mary’s Hospital. In 1887 he used a capillary electrometer to record the first human electrocardiogram. He created the first practical ECG machine with surface electrodes. He lectured on it in Europe and America, often using his dog Jimmy in his ECG demonstrations. Initially Waller did not think electrocardiograms would be useful in hospitals. However, eventually other physiologists such as Willem Einthoven and Thomas Lewis showed Waller that the traces could help diagnose heart conditions. In 1917, a few years before his death, Waller published a study of over 2000 traces of heart conditions. No photographer credited, undated.

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