Charles Richet

Charles Robert Richet (25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France known for his pioneering work in immunology. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Richet devoted many years to the study of paranormal and spiritualist phenomena, coining the term " ectoplasm". He also believed in the inferiority of Black people, was a proponent of eugenics and presided over the French Eugenics Society towards the end of his life. The Richet line of professorships of medical science would continue through his son Charles and his grandson Gabriel. Gabriel Richet was one of the great pioneers of European nephrology.

Career

He was born on 25 August 1850 in Paris the son of Alfred Richet. He was educated at the Lycee Bonaparte in Paris then studied Medicine at university in Paris.

Richet spent a period of time as an intern at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, where he observed Jean-Martin Charcot's work with then so called "hysterical" patients.

In 1887, Richet became professor of physiology at the Collège de France investigating a variety of subjects such as neurochemistry, digestion, thermoregulation in homeothermic animals, and breathing.Wolf, Stewart. (2012). ''Brain, Mind, and Medicine: Charles Richet and the Origins of Physiological Psychology''. Transaction Publishers. pp. 1–101. In 1898, he became a member of the Académie de Médecine. In 1914, he became a member of the Académie des Sciences.

Richet discovered the analgesic drug chloralose with Maurice Hanriot.Tabori, Paul. (1972). ''Charles Richet''. In ''Pioneers of the Unseen''. Souvenir Press. pp. 98–132.

Richet had many interests, and he wrote books about history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, as well as theatre and poetry. He was a pioneer in aviation.

He was involved in the French pacifist movement. Starting in 1902, pacifist societies began to meet at a National Peace Congress, often with several hundred attendees. Unable to unify the pacifist forces they set up a small permanent delegation of French Pacifist Societies in 1902, which Richet led, together with Lucien Le Foyer as secretary-general.

Discovery of anaphylaxis

Richet, working with Paul Portier, discovered the phenomenon of anaphylaxis. In 1901, they joined Albert I, Prince of Monaco on a scientific expedition around the French coast of Atlantic Ocean. On board Albert's ship ''Princesse Alice II'', they extracted toxin (they called hypnotoxin) produced by cnidarians such as Portuguese man o' war) and sea anemone ('' Actinia sulcata'').

In their first experiment on the ship, they injected a dog with the toxin expecting the dog to develop immunity (tolerance to the toxin), which instead developed a severe immune reaction (hypersensitivity). In 1902, they repeated the injections in their laboratory and found that dogs normally tolerated the toxin at first injection, but subsequent injection after three weeks of the first, they always developed fatal shock, regardless of the dose on the toxin used. Thus, instead of inducing tolerance (prophylaxis) which they expected, they discovered effects of the toxin as deadly.

In 1902, Richet coined the term ''aphylaxis'' to describe the phenomenon, but later changed it to ''anaphylaxis'' on grounds of euphony., citing May CD, "The ancestry of allergy: being an account of the original experimental induction of hypersensitivity recognizing the contribution of Paul Portier", ''J Allergy Clin Immunol.'' 1985 Apr; 75(4):485–495. The term is from the Greek ἀνά-, ''ana-'', meaning "against", and φύλαξις, ''phylaxis'', meaning "protection". On 15 February 1902, Richet and Portier jointly presented their experiments before the Societé de Biologie in Paris. This is regarded as the birth of allergy (the term invented by Clemens von Pirquet in1906) study (allergology). The research helped elucidate hay fever, asthma and other allergic reactions to foreign substances and explained some previously not understood cases of intoxication and sudden death. Richet continued to study on the phenomenon and was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1913.

Parapsychology

Richet held a deep interest in extrasensory perception and hypnosis. In 1884, Alexandr Aksakov interested him in the medium of Eusapia Palladino. In 1891, Richet founded the ''Annales des sciences psychiques''. He kept in touch with renowned occultists and spiritualists of his time such as Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, Frederic William Henry Myers and Gabriel Delanne. In 1919, Richet became honorary chairman of the Institut Métapsychique International in Paris, and, in 1930, full-time president.

As a scientist, Richet was positive about a physical explanation for paranormal phenomena. He wrote: "It has been shown that as regards subjective metapsychics the simplest and most rational explanation is to suppose the existence of a faculty of supernormal cognition ... setting in motion the human intelligence by certain vibrations that do not move the normal senses." In 1905, Richet was named president of the Society for Psychical Research in the United Kingdom.

In 1894, Richet coined the term ectoplasm. Richet believed that some mediumship could be explained physically due to the external projection of a material substance (ectoplasm) from the body of the medium, but denied this substance had anything to do with spirits. He rejected the spirit hypothesis of mediumship as unscientific, instead supporting the sixth sense hypothesis. According to Richet:

It seems to me prudent not to give credence to the spiritistic hypothesis... it appears to me still (at the present time, at all events) improbable, for it contradicts (at least apparently) the most precise and definite data of physiology, whereas the hypothesis of the sixth sense is a new physiological notion which contradicts nothing that we learn from physiology. Consequently, although in certain rare cases spiritism supplies an apparently simpler explanation, I cannot bring myself to accept it. When we have fathomed the history of these unknown vibrations emanating from reality – past reality, present reality, and even future reality – we shall doubtless have given them an unwonted degree of importance. The history of the Hertzian waves shows us the ubiquity of these vibrations in the external world, imperceptible to our senses.

He hypothesized a "sixth sense", an ability to perceive hypothetical vibrations, which he discussed in his 1928 book ''Our Sixth Sense''.Richet, Charles. (nd, ca 1928). ''Our Sixth Sense''. London: Rider. (First published in French, 1928) Although he believed in extrasensory perception, Richet did not believe in life after death or spirits.

He investigated and studied various mediums such as Eva Carrière, William Eglinton, Pascal Forthuny, Stefan Ossowiecki, Leonora Piper and Raphael Schermann. From 1905–1910, Richet attended many séances with the medium Linda Gazzera claiming she was a genuine medium who had performed psychokinesis, i.e. that various objects had been moved in the séance room. Gazzera was exposed as a fraud in 1911. Richet was also fooled into believing Joaquin María Argamasilla, known as the "Spaniard with X-ray Eyes", had genuine psychic powers, whom Harry Houdini exposed as a fraud in 1924. According to Joseph McCabe, Richet was also duped by the fraudulent mediums Eva Carrière and Eusapia Palladino.

Historian Ruth Brandon also criticized Richet as credulous when it came to psychical research, noting "his will to believe, and his disinclination to accept any unpalatably contrary indications".

Eugenics and racial beliefs

Richet was a proponent of eugenics, advocating sterilization and marriage prohibition for those with mental disabilities. He expressed his eugenist ideas in his 1919 book ''La Sélection Humaine''. From 1920 to 1926 he presided over the French Eugenics Society.

Psychologist Gustav Jahoda has noted that Richet "was a firm believer in the inferiority of blacks", comparing black people to apes, and intellectually to imbeciles.Bain, Paul G; Vaes, Jeroen; Leyens, Jacques Philippe. (2014). ''Humanness and Dehumanization''. Routledge. p. 28.

Works

Richet's works on parapsychological subjects, which dominated his later years, include ''Traité de Métapsychique'' (Treatise on Metapsychics, 1922), ''Notre Sixième Sens'' (Our Sixth Sense, 1928), ''L'Avenir et la Prémonition'' (The Future and Premonition, 1931) and ''La Grande Espérance'' (The Great Hope, 1933).
*Maxwell, J & Richet, C.
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
' (London: Duckworth, 1905).
*Richet, C. ''Physiologie Travaux du Laboratoire'' (Paris: Felix Alcan, 1909)
*Richet, C. ''La Sélection Humaine'' (Paris: Felix Alcan, 1919)
*Richet, C
Traité De Métapsychique
(Paris: Felix Alcan, 1922).
*Richet, C
''Thirty Years of Psychical Research''
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1923).
*Richet, C. ''Our Sixth Sense'' (London: Rider, 1928).

See also

* Breguet-Richet Gyroplane
*Eusapia Palladino

References

Further reading

*M. Brady Brower. (2010). ''Unruly Spirits: The Science of Psychic Phenomena in Modern France''. University of Illinois Press.
*Sofie Lachapelle. (2011). ''Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853–1931''. Johns Hopkins University Press.
*Paul Tabori. (1972). ''Pioneers of the Unseen''. Souvenir Press.
*Stewart Wolf. (2012). ''Brain, Mind, and Medicine: Charles Richet and the Origins of Physiological Psychology''. Transaction Publishers.

External links

*
*

Short biography and bibliography
in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Richet's ''Dictionnaire de physiologie''
(1895–1928) as fullscan from the original
*
* including the Nobel Lecture on 11 December 1913 ''Anaphylaxis''


by Nandor Fodor on ''SurvivalAfterDeath.org.uk'' with links to several articles on psychical research

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richet, Charles Robert
1850 births
1935 deaths
Physicians from Paris
French physiologists
French immunologists
Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
French Nobel laureates
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Hypnosis
French occultists
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
French writers on paranormal topics
Parapsychologists
White supremacists