THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 



FIG. 40. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (reproduced from Babkin's Pavlov, A &'ogra/)A> by permission of the 

 publishers. University of Chicago Press). On the right Pavlov watching an experiment (Sovfoto 

 * 3' 9573 Moscow USSR). 



he had the bumps on his head read by a phrenologist 

 (with flattering interpretations)^' we perceive a deri- 

 vation of his ideas from Gall and Spurzheim. Spencer 

 became hypochondriacal about his own head, believing 

 it to have an inadequate blood supply. To improve 

 the circulation he exercised at rowing and at racquets 

 in 15 mill, spurts, dictating his books in the intervals 

 between exertions. His friend, Lewes (3 1 7) in his 

 Physical Basis of Mind was doubtful about the localiza- 

 tion of the various mental processes but convinced of 

 their physiological nature. 



Pavlov, the towering figure of Russian neurophysiol- 

 ogy, repeatedly throughout his life stressed his in- 

 debtedness to Sechenov'" and to Lewes^' (whose book 

 on physiology he read when a schoolboy). The 

 influence of these men, one too little known outside 

 Russia, one almost forgotten, was so great that they 

 feature not only in the scientific writings of the times 

 but in Russian fiction. Turgeniev is said to have 

 taken Sechenov as his model for the science student, 

 Bazarov, in Fathers and Sons and Dostoievsky cited 

 the reading of Lewes' book as a sign of education in 

 the wife of a drunk in Crime and Punishment. 



Pavlov dated his interest in the digestive system 

 (318) from reading Lewes, an interest that was to 

 occupy the first 25 years of his working life and to win 

 for him the Nobel Prize. And it was a feature of the 

 digestive system, the salivary apparatus, that was to 

 be drawn by him into the work suggested by Sech- 



317. Lev^^s, G. H. The Physical Basis of Mind. Boston, 1877. 



318. Pavlov, I. P. (1B49-1936). Lectures on the Work of the 

 Principal Digestive Glands (in Russian). St. Petersburg: 

 Kushnerev, 1897; translated into English by W. H. 

 Thompson. London: Griffin, 190J. 



enov's theories of 30 years before. Fundamental in 

 Pavlov's thinking (319) was the concept of temporary 

 connections established in the cortex by the repetition 

 of external stimuli linked only by a constant time 

 interval, although one gets the impression that he 

 thought more in terms of influence than of specific 

 neuronal connections. Thus, for example, in his 

 classical experiment, the repeated sound of a metro- 

 nome, at a fixed interval before food was made avail- 

 able to his experimental dogs, caused salivation to 

 begin with shorter and shorter latency and at an 

 increasing rate. Later more complex situations were 

 developed as laboratory procedures, and this type of 

 reflex was used for mapping the response of the 

 cerebral cortex to various sensory inputs, Pavlov 

 (319) naming the areas as "analyzers' for the various 

 modalities. 



The instability and temporary character of the 

 conditioned reflex in contrast to that of the inborn 



319. Pavlov, I. P. Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, English 

 translation by \V. H. Gantt. New York: Internat. Pub., 

 1928. 



"'The opening sentence of the phrenologist's report read: 

 "Such a head ought to be in the Church." When we seek the 

 basis for this statement in the itemized score for Spencer's 

 bumps, we find both Firmness and Self-esteem 'very large;' 

 Language 'rather full,' and Wit and Amativeness only 'moder- 

 ate.' 



'° See Shaternikov, M. N. The life of I. M. Sechenov. In : 

 Sechenov, Selected Works. Moscow-Leningrad: State Publ. House, 



■935- 



^' See Babkin, B. P. Pavlov. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 

 1949, p. 214. 



