[Second edition of Pavlov`s main work] Lektsii o rabote glavnykh pishchevaritelnykh zhelez / Novoye izdaniye, prosmotrennoye avtorom [ Lectures on the Work of the Main Digestive Glands / New edition, reviewed by the author] .

Second edition of the main work of famous scientist Ivan Pavlov, Russian Nobel.This book is remarkable in many ways. First, we note that the new preface to this edition is marked by I.P. Pavlov "Petrograd, February 1917". That is, the book was born at a turning point in Russian history.

"Thanks to the Publishing House "Nature", this book, which has long disappeared from the book market, appears again," Pavlov writes in the new preface. - According to the decision of the Publishing House, which coincided with my own desire, this new edition of the book is a stereotypical reproduction of the 1897 edition. At one time, "Lectures" were written amid great laboratory excitement by their subject - and this put its distinct stamp on the book, giving it a special freshness and fervor. Now I have long since moved away from this subject, and my lively interest has concentrated in a completely different department of physiology; now I would not be able to write about that subject in the old tone. Thus, if I wanted to correct and supplement the book, in accordance with what the past 20 years have brought, then the book would have acquired, so to speak, a patchy appearance. And I didn't want to spoil its initial general enthusiastic tone."

In his eight lectures, I.P. Pavlov analyzes in detail the results of experimental studies of the "separation work" of the pancreas and gastric glands. "Does the required amount of juices pour out immediately on all the injected material, or does the delivery of juices to the digestive canal continue all the time the food is in this part of the canal, adjusting in some way to the gradually decreasing and changing mass of food?" The answer to these questions was obtained by Pavlov as a result of a brilliant new technique he developed for conducting experiments on laboratory animals - dogs.

The accuracy of this technique is such that Pavlov does not hide the almost aesthetic pleasure of observing the experiments: "A strong impression of such, almost physical, accuracy in a complex life process is one of the pleasant amusements of sitting for hours in front of working glands."

The ultimate goal, according to Pavlov's plan, is to turn physiology into an exact science akin to physics. "An accurate knowledge of the fate of food in the body should form the subject of ideal physiology, the physiology of the future," Pavlov insists in his Nobel Speech delivered on December 12, 1904.

A photographic portrait of I.P. Pavlov and his facsimile on the frontispiece. Pavlov's dedication is on the schmutztitule: "The author dedicates his work to the memory of a friend, a talented doctor, Nikolai Petrovich Bogoyavlensky." Publishing binding.