Charles Richet
| Charles Richet | |
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| Born | August 25, 1850 |
| Died | December 4, 1935 (aged 85) |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1913) |
Charles Robert Richet (August 25, 1850 – December 4, 1935) was a French physiologist who initially investigated a variety of subjects such as neurochemistry, digestion, thermoregulation in homeothermic animals, and breathing. He won the Nobel Prize "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis" in 1913.[1]
He also devoted many years to the study of spiritualist phenomena.
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[edit] Life
In 1887 Richet was named professor of physiology at the Collège de France, and in 1898 he became a member of the Académie de Médecine. It was, however, together with Paul Portier, their work on anaphylaxis (his term for a sensitized individual's sometimes lethal reaction to a second, small-dose injection of an antigen) that in 1913 won him the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. This 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. In 1914 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences.
Richet was a man of many interests, and his works included books about history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, as well as theatre plays and poetry. He was a pioneer in aviation.
He also had a deep interest in extrasensory perception and hypnosis. In 1884 Alexander Aksakov interested him in the medium Eusapia Palladino. In 1891 Richet founded the Annales des sciences psychiques. He kept in touch with renowned occultists and spiritists of his time such as Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, Frederic William Henry Myers and Gabriel Delanne.
In 1905 Richet was named president of the Society for Psychical Research in the United Kingdom, and coined the terms "ectoplasm." He experimented with Marthe Béraud, Elisabette D'Espérance, William Eglinton and Stefan Ossowiecki. In 1919 he became honorary president of the Institut Métapsychique International in Paris, and, in 1929, full-time president.
[edit] Parapsychology
As a scientist Richet was positive about a physical explanation for paranormal phenomena.[2] 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."[3]
He later wrote about a “sixth sense,” an ability to perceive the hypothetical vibrations, he discussed this theory in his book Our Sixth Sense (1928).[4] He also believed that some mediumship could be explained physically due to the external projection of a material substance (ectoplasm) from the body of the medium.[5]
[edit] Works
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Wikisource has original works written by or about: Charles Robert Richet |
Richet's works on parascientific subjects, which dominated his late 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).
- Richet, C. Traité de métapsychique (Paris, F. Alcan, 1922).
- Maxwell, J & Richet, C. Metapsychical phenomena: methods and observations (London : Duckworth, 1905).
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1913 Charles Richet". Nobelprize.org. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1913/index.html. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
- ^ Alvarado, C. S. (2006). Human radiations: Concepts of force in mesmerism, spiritualism and psychical research. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 70, 138–162.
- ^ Richet, C. (1923). Thirty Years of Psychical Research. New York: Macmillan. (Translated from the second French edition)
- ^ Richet, C. (nd, ca 1928). Our Sixth Sense. London: Rider. (First published in French, 1928)
- ^ Richet, C. (1923). Thirty Years of Psychical Research. New York: Macmillan. (Translated from the second French edition)
[edit] 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
- Charles Robert Richet photo
- Charles Richet Biography on Nobel Prize website
- Short biography by Nandor Fodor on SurvivalAfterDeath.org.uk with links to several articles on psychical research
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