Tim Tully recently gave a fascinating account of his mission to Russia to find the names of Pavlov's dogs [1xPavlov's dogs. Tully, T. Curr. Biol. 2003; 13: R117–R119Abstract | Full Text | Full Text PDFSee all References[1]. Unfortunately, his essay perpetuates one of the most enduring myths in science: that Pavlov routinely used a bell in training salivary conditioning in dogs. Tully says: “For several repetitions, Pavlov would ring a bell just before giving food to a hungry dog. Before long, he noticed, the dog started salivating whenever it heard the bell.”This description is fiction. One may hunt in vain in the famous work cited [2xPavlov, I.P. See all References[2] for any such mention. Pavlov related there that he used, among other conditioned stimuli, a buzzer, black square, mechanical stimuli, rotating object, “hooter”, whistle, lamp flash, even electric shock, and most often, the sound of a beating metronome. But never a bell.Thomas [3xCorrecting some Pavloviana regarding “Pavlov's bell” and Pavlov's “mugging”. Thomas, R. Amer. J. Psychol. 1997; 110: 115–125CrossrefSee all References[3] noted that Pavlov, in an early published lecture [4xThe scientific investigation of the psychical faculties or processes in the higher animals. Pavlov, I.P. Science. 1906; 24: 613–619Crossref | PubMedSee all References[4], did make brief mention of the use of the “violent ringing of a bell”. But Pavlov cites this case only to indicate its unsatisfactory effect on salivary conditioning. Significantly, no trace of this experiment was included in Pavlov's later major account of his research [2xPavlov, I.P. See all References[2]. Thomas also noted early second-hand accounts, not in a scientific publication but in Time magazine, of Pavlov's use of a bell. These are the sole references known of the use of this stimulus by Pavlov in salivary conditioning. So the idea that Pavlov habitually used a bell in his salivary conditioning research and that his discoveries are founded on this particular stimulus is doubtful, despite its now-legendary status. We can ask for whom the bell tolls, but we know this: it wasn't for Pavlov's dogs.