The Physiology Department
The ground-floor animal house
Visitors to the animal house would be confronted by a motley crew. Dogs returning from surgery with freshly stitched up necks, stomachs or cheeks; or heads, after the removal or destruction of parts of their brain; more seasoned survivors too, with multiple wounds, some clearly ill and in pain. Others might be lively and friendly, the only noticeable difference to a ‘normal’ dog an opening in their neck or cheek with a glass measuring tube attached.
Where did the animals come from? There was no official breeding programme and there are few written accounts of dogs raised here from birth, so it is normally assumed that a regular supply of adult dogs came from outside the labs.
Gathered from the streets, the dogs must have been a broad mixture of ages, shapes and sizes, breeds and temperaments. Interaction between the dogs might be marked by enthusiasm, indifference or aggression reflecting character but also the ordeal of their ongoing incarceration — for all a life sentence.
The first-floor laboratory
The main laboratory and surgery spaces take up the first floor. This is where many of the ‘classical conditioning’ experiments with dogs Pavlov is mostly remembered for today.
In the early days of the labs dogs regularly died during surgery. Later on, when the lab turned its attention to the study of conditional reflexes, the operation required was less intrusive – cutting into the cheek or jaw, creating a permanent path between saliva glands and an opening at the surface of the skin, to which a container could be attached to collect saliva. Most of these dogs survived relatively intact and took part in countless experiments often over a number of years.
The labs would have been a busy, noisy and smelly place. Equipment, furniture, co-workers and dogs all vied for space alongside Pavlov and a regular stream of guests – patrons, officials, other scientists, journalists, and as his celebrity grew, visitors from Europe and America.
On arrival the dogs were secured via straps and buckles to the experimenter stand. An experiment would then begin – a dog being subjected to one or more stimuli, saliva carefully collected and recorded.
You can also see a row of dogs lined up as if on an assembly line. This is what Pavlov called the ‘gastric juice factory’. Look out for the detail of what this was all about elsewhere in the exhibition, especially Gastric Juice for Sale.
Pavlov’s desk
On top of the doll’s house is a reimagining of a desk in the labs. Various experimental paraphernalia can be found here. The open book imagines a catalogue user’s guide to the ‘various stimuli currently available to the industrious experimenter’.
Noted stimuli include electric shocks. Our version of the machine that administered shocks comes complete with three electrode attachments, a Bakelite applicator handle and two dials — one changes the voltage and the other increases the power.
The device was controlled from outside the experimental room and covered with cotton to muffle any noise. The current could be increased or decreased, registered by a galvanometer. The only part taken into the room was a glass tube with electrodes inside, attached to the machine by a long cord. This was fixed to a shaved area of the dog’s thigh, the shock emanating from the glass when switched on from outside. It was routine for experiments to increase the power of the machine to a level that was extremely painful, even burning a dog’s skin.
The mysterious red dots
You can also see a strange set of cards leaning against the shock machine…
A ‘catalogue of stimuli currently available for the industrious experimenter’ lays open on the desk. It appears to include information about the red dot cards, the shock machine and other stimuli.
