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When animals were first studied by the psychologists, their behavior was interpreted anthropomorphically. The knowledge of human psychology was thrown into reverse and the animals were credited with consciousness, introspective, free will, after the German school led by Wilhelm Max Wundt. First to throw brilliant new light on the problem was Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Son of a priest in a Russian village, he was early confronted with Spirit & Mind v. Matter. Long years in scientific study got him a doctor's degree at the age of 34. Six years later, 1890, he was appointed director of the physiology department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine at St. Petersburg (Leningrad). From then on, his path was undeviating, scrupulous, relentless. His "Work of the Digestive Glands" was crowned by the Nobel Prize in 1904. Having mastered the mechanics of digestion he started speculating on psychic stimulation, the power of suggestion on the lower organs. He conditioned various animals to a bell, to a light, to a color, to the beats of a metronome, and in each case, after appearing with the food a few times, the object itself when presented without food caused the salivary gland to secrete steadily.
The dogs could be taught to discriminate between a metronome beating 68 beats per minute to one having a rate of 200. Food appeared with the 200 rate, nothing happened at 68. After the dog had been conditioned the metronome was placed near him and started at 200. Immediately saliva dripped into the little tube connected with his salivary gland. The metronome slowed to 68. The dog was no longer interested. Two hundred again and the flow of saliva recommenced.
Pavlov then studied an emotion, pain.
A ticking metronome was set beside a dog. Simultaneously he was given a slight electric shock in the leg. This was repeated several times. Finally the metronome alone was used. As soon as it started ticking, up came the paw, the dog's face contracted with pain and he remained in agony until the instrument was removed.
Three years ago Pavlov came to America. Confused by rush and roar he sat for a moment on a seat in Grand Central Station, Manhattan. A small handbag containing much of his money lay on the seat beside him and with characteristic absorption in the seething human laboratory around him, he forgot his worldly goods completely. When he rose to go, the handbag was gone. It had been taken from under his very nose. "Ah, well," sighed Pavlov gently, "one must not put temptation in the way of the needy."
So fundamental are these researches that during the War and the aftermath, when all of Russia existed on starvation rations, Pavlov's laboratory continued to function as in times of peace. There was no bread to eat, but there were test tubes, metronomes, platinum wires, and as Pavlov remarked gratefully "always plenty of paper and pencils to write down experiments."
Pavlov's researches have revolutionized the study of human psychology. Man is now regarded as a higher member of the animal kingdom psychologically as well as physiologically. On account of the greater complexity of the human brain, more types of reaction are possible but the underlying mechanics are the same. The recent work on shell shock has demonstrated what harm can arise from badly conditioned reflexes.