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About this quote

What does it mean?
Severing nerves during isolation affected how the stomach worked normally.
In plain terms
Cutting nerves in experiments changed how the stomach behaved.
What can you take from it?
Experimental methods can alter natural biological function.

Where it applies

  • conducting experiments
  • interpreting results

Putting it to work

  • account for surgical effects
  • verify natural function

Questions to consider

  • How do methods impact results?

Another view

The method used here inherently changed the subject.

More from Ivan Pavlov

  1. From the described experiment it is clear that the mere act of eating, the food even not reaching the stomach, determines the stimulation of the gastric glands.

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  2. In this way we often had to perform very minute operations, sometimes several of them on one and the same animal.

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  3. Finally, as the digestive canal is a complex system, a series of separate chemical laboratories, I cut the connections between them in order to investigate the…

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