-
Born
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov born September 26, 1849, Ryazan, Russia -
Period: to
Ivan Pavlov
-
Studies
In 1870 he abandoned his theological studies to enter the University of St. Petersburg, where he studied chemistry and physiology. -
Received M.D.
After receiving the M.D. at the Imperial Medical Academy in St. Petersburg (graduating in 1879 and completing his dissertation in 1883), he studied during 1884–86 in Germany under the direction of the cardiovascular physiologist Carl Ludwig (in Leipzig) and the gastrointestinal physiologist Rudolf Heidenhain (in Breslau). -
Marriage
Pavlov married a pedagogical student in 1881, a friend of the author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but he was so impoverished that at first they had to live separately. He attributed much of his eventual success to his wife, a domestic, religious, and literary woman, who devoted her life to his comfort and work. -
First Independent Research
Having worked with Ludwig, Pavlov’s first independent research was on the physiology of the circulatory system. From 1888 to 1890, in the laboratory of Botkin in St. Petersburg, he investigated cardiac physiology and the regulation of blood pressure. -
Accomplishment
He became so skillful a surgeon that he was able to introduce a catheter into the femoral artery of a dog almost painlessly without anesthesia and to record the influence on blood pressure of various pharmacological and emotional stimuli. -
Career
In 1890 he became professor of physiology in the Imperial Medical Academy, where he remained until his resignation in 1924. -
Studies
Pavlov studied the secretory activity of digestion. -
Discoveries
Pavlov tried to apply his laws to the explanation of human psychoses. He assumed that the excessive inhibition characteristic of a psychotic person was a protective mechanism—shutting out the external world—in that it excluded injurious stimuli that had previously caused extreme excitation.