author
John Augustine Waller
An early-19th-century naval surgeon, he wrote vivid medical and travel accounts shaped by his time in the Caribbean. His books mix close observation with the curiosity of a doctor trying to explain unsettling experiences and unfamiliar places.
1 Audiobook
A Treatise on the Incubus, or Night-Mare, Disturbed Sleep, Terrific Dreams and Nocturnal Visions
by John Augustine Waller
About the author
John Augustine Waller was a surgeon in the Royal Navy and was assigned to the Naval Hospital in Barbados from 1807 to 1810. He is known for A Treatise on the Incubus, or Night-Mare (1816), a medical work on disturbed sleep, dreams, and nocturnal terrors, and for A Voyage in the West Indies (1820), drawn from observations made during his service and travels.
His surviving work suggests a practical, observant writer with interests that reached beyond medicine. In addition to writing about sleep and nightmare, he recorded scenes, customs, and daily life in the Caribbean, giving modern readers a glimpse of how a medically trained traveler described the world around him.
Clear biographical details about his life outside these publications are limited in the sources I could confirm, so his books remain the best introduction to him: thoughtful, curious, and very much rooted in the concerns of his time.