A Great Scientist

REVIEWS A GREAT SCIENTIST" H. WASTENEVS This is a glorious book. It is a vivid story of the life and work of a great Russian physiologist written by a friend and disciple who gave the best years of his life wholeheartedly to Canada and was one of her most inspiring and productive workers in physiological research. It is a monument to the nobility not alone of Pavlov but also of his biographer. The purely biographical portion of the book is reminiscent of the works of some Russian novelist and is entirely Slavic in its temper. For three years Pavlov was in love with Sara Vasilievna (who became his wife ) but was too shy to tell her so though he finally, as she was leaving St. Petersburg, summoned up courage to propose to her, and was accepted. On a subsequent visit to St. Petersburg, Sara gave all her money to Pavlov except enough to buy a pair of shoes. Pavlov spent all this money, and all his own, on her entertainment and she had to borrow the money for her return fare. On reaching her destination she sought in her trunk for her new shoes. She could find only one and immediately WTote to Pavlov who replied, "Don't look for your shoe, I took it as a remembrance of you and have put it on my desk" ! For the first ten years of their married life the Pavlovs suffered abject poverty, but they were both idealists and remained so to the end. Eventually Pavlov became a popular professor of physiology in the Military Medical Academy, but resigned in 1924 because the Bolshevist authorities barred the children of the clergy from higher education. Pavlov himself was the son of a clergyman. He had always the courage of his convictions and rated independence, says Babkin, higher than any other human attribute. After Babkin had suffered severely at the hands of the Bolshevists and had left Russia, he was invited, none the less, to return, but had refused. On his appointment to the chair of Physiology at Dalhousie University Pavlov wrote to congratulate him: "I am happy that you have at last found a position . . . because this has come to a person who has kept his personal integrity intact, for, having received an insult you kept sternly remembering it and refused to return to Russia in spite of all offers at a time when your position was very hard abroad. I am amazed at the absence of this feeling of "Pavlov: A Biography. By B. P. BABKIN. Chicago : University of Chicago Press [Toronto: W. J. Gage & Co.). 1949. Pp. 365. $6.00. 428 REVIEWS A GREAT SCIENTIST" H. WASTENEYS This is a glorious book. It is a vivid story of the life and work of a great Russian physiologist written by a friend and disciple who gave the best years of his life wholeheartedly to Canada and was one of her most inspiring and productive workers in physiological research. It is a monument to the nobility not alone of Pavlov but also of his biographer. The purely biographical portion of the book is reminiscent of the works of some Russian novelist and is entirely Slavic in its temper. For three years Pavlov was in love with Sara Vasilievna (wbo became his wife ) but was too shy to tell her so though he finally, as she was leaving SI. Petersburg, summoned up courage to propose to her, and was accepted. On a subsequent visit to St. Petersburg, Sara gave all her money to Pavlov except enough to buy a pair of shoes. Pavlov spent all this money, and all his own, on her entertainment and she had to borrow the money for her return fare. On reaching her destination she sought in her trunk for her new shoes. She could find only one and immediately wrote to Pavlov who replied, "Don't look for your shoe, I took it as a remembrance of you and have put it on my desk"! For the first ten years of their married life the Pavlovs suffered abject poverty, but they were both idealists and remained so to the end. Eventually Pavlov became a popular professor of physiology in...