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Ivan Petrovich Pavlov Biography
Ivan
Petrovich Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849 at Ryazan, where
his father, Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov, was a village priest. He was
educated first at the church school in Ryazan and then at the theological
seminary there.
Inspired by the progressive ideas which D. I. Pisarev, the most
eminent of the Russian literary critics of the 1860's and I. M.
Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, were spreading, Pavlov
abandoned his religious career and decided to devote his life to
science. In 1870 he enrolled in the physics and mathematics faculty
to take the course in natural science.
Pavlov became passionately absorbed with physiology, which in fact
was to remain of such fundamental importance to him throughout his
life. It was during this first course that he produced, in collaboration
with another student, Afanasyev, his first learned treatise, a work
on the physiology of the pancreatic nerves. This work was widely
acclaimed and he was awarded a gold medal for it.
In 1875 Pavlov completed his course with an outstanding record and
received the degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences. However, impelled
by his overwhelming interest in physiology, he decided to continue
his studies and proceeded to the Academy of Medical Surgery to take
the third course there. He completed this in 1879 and was again
awarded a gold medal. After a competitive examination, Pavlov won
a fellowship at the Academy, and this together with his position
as Director of the Physiological Laboratory at the clinic of the
famous Russian clinician, S. P. Botkin, enabled him to continue
his research work. In 1883 he presented his doctor's thesis on the
subject of «The centrifugal nerves of the heart». In this
work he developed his idea of nervism, using as example the intensifying
nerve of the heart which he had discovered, and furthermore laid
down the basic principles on the trophic function of the nervous
system. In this as well as in other works, resulting mainly from
his research in the laboratory at the Botkin clinic, Pavlov showed
that there existed a basic pattern in the reflex regulation of the
activity of the circulatory organs.
In 1890 Pavlov was invited to organize and direct the Department
of Physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. Under his
direction, which continued over a period of 45 years to the end
of his life, this Institute became one of the most important centres
of physiological research.
In 1890 Pavlov was appointed Professor of Pharmacology at the Military
Medical Academy and five years later he was appointed to the then
vacant Chair of Physiology, which he held till 1925.
It was at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in the years 1891-1900
that Pavlov did the bulk of his research on the physiology of digestion.
It was here that he developed the surgical method of the «chronic»
experiment with extensive use of fistulas, which enabled the functions
of various organs to be observed continuously under relatively normal
conditions. This discovery opened a new era in the development of
physiology, for until then the principal method used had been that
of «acute» vivisection, and the function of an organism
had only been arrived at by a process of analysis. This meant that
research into the functioning of any organ necessitated disruption
of the normal interrelation between the organ and its environment.
Such a method was inadequate as a means of determining how the functions
of an organ were regulated or of discovering the laws governing
the organism as a whole under normal conditions - problems which
had hampered the development of all medical science. With his method
of research, Pavlov opened the way for new advances in theoretical
and practical medicine. With extreme clarity he showed that the
nervous system played the dominant part in regulating the digestive
process, and this discovery is in fact the basis of modern physiology
of digestion. Pavlov made known the results of his research in this
field, which is of great importance in practical medicine, in lectures
which he delivered in 1895 and published under the title Lektsii
o rabote glavnykh pishchevaritelnyteh zhelez (Lectures on the
function of the principal digestive glands) (1897).
Pavlov's research into the physiology of digestion led him logically
to create a science of conditioned reflexes. In his study of the
reflex regulation of the activity of the digestive glands, Pavlov
paid special attention to the phenomenon of «psychic secretion»,
which is caused by food stimuli at a distance from the animal. By
employing the method - developed by his colleague D. D. Glinskii
in 1895 - of establishing fistulas in the ducts of the salivary
glands, Pavlov was able to carry out experiments on the nature of
these glands. A series of these experiments caused Pavlov to reject
the subjective interpretation of «psychic» salivary secretion
and, on the basis of Sechenov's hypothesis that psychic activity
was of a reflex nature, to conclude that even here a reflex - though
not a permanent but a temporary or conditioned one - was involved.
This discovery of the function of conditioned reflexes made it possible
to study all psychic activity objectively, instead of resorting
to subjective methods as had hitherto been necessary; it was now
possible to investigate by experimental means the most complex interrelations
between an organism and its external environment.
In 1903, at the 14th International Medical Congress in Madrid, Pavlov
read a paper on «The Experimental Psychology and Psychopathology
of Animals». In this paper the definition of conditioned and
other reflexes was given and it was shown that a conditioned reflex
should be regarded as an elementary psychological phenomenon, which
at the same time is a physiological one. It followed from this that
the conditioned reflex was a clue to the mechanism of the most highly
developed forms of reaction in animals and humans to their environment
and it made an objective study of their psychic activity possible.
Subsequently, in a systematic programme of research, Pavlov transformed
Sechenov's theoretical attempt to discover the reflex mechanisms
of psychic activity into an experimentally proven theory of conditioned
reflexes.
As guiding principles of materialistic teaching on the laws governing
the activity of living organisms, Pavlov deduced three principles
for the theory of reflexes: the principle of determinism, the principle
of analysis and synthesis, and the principle of structure.
The development of these principles by Pavlov and his school helped
greatly towards the building-up of a scientific theory of medicine
and towards the discovery of laws governing the functioning of the
organism as a whole.
Experiments carried out by Pavlov and his pupils showed that conditioned
reflexes originate in the cerebral cortex, which acts as the «prime
distributor and organizer of all activity of the organism»
and which is responsible for the very delicate equilibrium of an
animal with its environment. In 1905 it was established that any
external agent could, by coinciding in time with an ordinary reflex,
become the conditioned signal for the formation of a new conditioned
reflex. In connection with the discovery of this general postulate
Pavlov proceeded to investigate «artificial conditioned reflexes».
Research in Pavlov's laboratories over a number of years revealed
for the first time the basic laws governing the functioning of the
cortex of the great hemispheres. Many physiologists were drawn to
the problem of developing Pavlov's basic laws governing the activity
of the cerebrum. As a result of all this research there emerged
an integrated Pavlovian theory on higher nervous activity.
Even in the early stages of his research Pavlov received world acclaim
and recognition. In 1901 he was elected a corresponding member of
the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 1904 he was awarded a Nobel
Prize, and in 1907 he was elected Academician of the Russian Academy
of Sciences; in 1912 he was given an honorary doctorate at Cambridge
University and in the following years honorary membership of various
scientific societies abroad. Finally, upon the recommendation of
the Medical Academy of Paris, he was awarded the Order of the Legion
of Honour (1915).
After the October Revolution, a special government decree, signed
by Lenin on January 24, 1921, noted «the outstanding scientific
services of Academician I.P.Pavlov, which are of enormous significance
to the working class of the whole world».
The Communist Party and the Soviet Government saw to it that Pavlov
and his collaborators were given unlimited scope for scientific
research. The Soviet Union became a prominent centre for the study
of physiology, and the fact that the 15th International Physiological
Congress of August 9-17, 1935, was held in Leningrad and Moscow
clearly shows that it was acknowledged as such.
Pavlov directed all his indefatigable energy towards scientific
reforms. He devoted much effort to transforming the physiological
institutions headed by him into world centres of scientific knowledge,
and it is generally acknowledged that he succeeded in this endeavour.
Pavlov nurtured a great school of physiologists, which produced
many distinguished pupils. He left the richest scientific legacy
- a brilliant group of pupils, who would continue developing the
ideas of their master, and a host of followers all over the world.
In 1881, Pavlov married Seraphima (Sara) Vasilievna Karchevskaya,
a teacher, the daughter of a doctor in the Black Sea fleet. She
first had a miscarriage, said to be due to her having to run after
her very fast-walking husband. Subsequently they had a son, Wirchik,
who died very suddenly as a child; three sons, Vladimir, Victor
and Vsevolod, one of whom was a well-known physicist and professor
of physics at Leningrad in 1925, and a daughter, Vera.
Dr. Pavlov died in Leningrad on February
27, 1936.
From Nobel Lectures,
Physiology or Medicine 1901-1921.
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