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Pavlov鈥檚 Physiology Factory by Daniel Todes, Johns Hopkins University Press, $58, ISBN 0801866901

MENTION Ivan Pavlov鈥檚 name and it鈥檚 odds on that most people will recognise it. 鈥淎h, yes. The dog man. He made a dog salivate by ringing a bell. Conditioned reflex, wasn鈥檛 it called?鈥� The reply is almost as much a conditioned reflex as the dog鈥檚. But apart from that, Pavlov remains unknown to most people. In fact, Pavlov became the head of Russia鈥檚 first large-scale physiological laboratory in 1891, the 鈥渇actory鈥� of Daniel Todes鈥檚 title, and made it unique. The factory鈥檚 purpose was to investigate the complicated processes involved in digestion, and the animals used in research and experimentation were dogs. Ingenious surgical techniques were used to obtain, for example, gastric secretions, from dogs 鈥渁t work鈥� as production units. Preparations from these were sold as medicines, and this sideline proved important in the factory鈥檚 finances. The research enormously expanded our knowledge of digestive physiology, and made Pavlov an international figure and finally a Nobel prizewinner in 1904. There was some debate about this, for Pavlov was an unusual boss and insisted that his whole staff be recognised as well as himself.

Pavlov鈥檚 Physiology Factory is not a biography, concentrating only on this early period of Pavlov鈥檚 career. It contains everything that you could want to know, but it鈥檚 a somewhat flat read without professional interest to keep you going.