His second independent experiment involved investigating the digestion process. In this experiment he surgically make fistulas (at strategic points throughout the digestive tract), which enabled him to observe, take and measure sample of the various secretions. As can be observed from the diagram the placement of the fistulas took some experimentation. It is reported that upward of twenty dogs where sacrificed during the learning curve. Wow – animal rights advocates would have had a field day with Pavlov! But, these animals did not die in vain for the observations made by Pavlov have had far reaching affects even into the 21st century. Where would gastrointestinal ailment sufferers be without many of his observations and findings? Nonetheless, it was these experiments that lead to his legendary experiment and on to a Nobel Prize (in 1904). Quite incidentally Pavlov noticed that the lab dogs would start salivating and secreting, around mealtime as soon as they saw or heard the assistant who fed them. Eventually this got Pavlov thinking about what caused them to react this way and lead to him investigating this phenomenon. During the course of these experiments he tried variations on ring the bell. All which lead to the theory of Conditioned Reflexes. Which made objective study of psychic activity possible, because prior to this the studies were much more subjective. Incomplete sentenceMy personal thoughts on Pavlov were initially, rather neutral, but now I am much more conflicted. On one hand I feel admiration for a person who can succeed through such adversity. I see a man who had much suffering in his life whether inflicted by him or to him. Whether it was his early trauma in life or the grief that comes with the death of a child; he lived with much mental anguish. Then, on the other hand, I feel revulsion toward a person who could inflict such cruelty on domesticated animals. Ultimately I end up wondering whether this ill...
