Although trained as a physician Pavlov always worked as an experimental laboratory scientist. He only had contact with patients at the end of his career. Under the influence of the well known clinician Sergei Petrovich Botkin he developed a commitment to nervous, as opposed to humoral explanations for bodily functions. By 1883 he had developed his theory of “nervism” which he defined as a physiological theory which tries to prove that the nervous system controls the greatest possible number of bodily functions. With the development of aseptic methods of surgery at that time, Pavlov was …