1. Charles Richet 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.
24 Facts About Charles Richet
1. 2.
Gabriel Charles Richet was one of the pioneers of European nephrology.
3.
Charles Richet was born on 25 August 1850 in Paris the son of Alfred Richet.
4.
Charles Richet was educated at the Lycee Bonaparte in Paris then studied medicine at university in Paris.
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Charles Richet spent a period of time as an intern at the Salpetriere hospital in Paris, where he observed Jean-Martin Charcot's work with then so called "hysterical" patients.
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In 1887, Charles Richet became professor of physiology at the College de France investigating a variety of subjects such as neurochemistry, digestion, thermoregulation in homeothermic animals, and breathing.
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Charles Richet had many interests, and he wrote books about history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, as well as theatre and poetry.
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Unable to unify the pacifist forces they set up a small permanent delegation of French Pacifist Societies in 1902, which Charles Richet led, together with Lucien Le Foyer as secretary-general.
9.
Charles Richet, working with Paul Portier, discovered the phenomenon of anaphylaxis.
10.
In 1902, Charles Richet coined the term aphylaxis to describe the phenomenon; he later changed it to anaphylaxis because he thought it was more euphonious.
11.
Charles Richet continued to study the phenomenon of anaphylaxis, and in 1913 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work.
12.
Charles Richet was deeply interested in the idea of extrasensory perception, and in hypnosis.
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Charles Richet kept in touch with renowned occultists and spiritualists of his time such as Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, Frederic William Henry Myers and Gabriel Delanne.
14.
In 1919, Charles Richet became honorary chairman of the Institut Metapsychique International in Paris, and, in 1930, its full-time president.
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Charles Richet hoped to find a physical mechanism that would scientifically validate the existence of paranormal phenomena.
16.
Charles Richet believed that some apparent mediumship could be explained physically as due to the external projection of a material substance from the body of the medium, but he didn't believe that this proposed substance had anything to do with spirits.
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Charles Richet rejected the spirit hypothesis of mediumship as unscientific, instead supporting the sixth-sense hypothesis.
18.
Charles Richet hypothesized a "sixth sense", an ability to perceive hypothetical vibrations, and he discussed this idea in his 1928 book Our Sixth Sense.
19.
Charles Richet investigated and studied various mediums, such as Eva Carriere, William Eglinton, Pascal Forthuny, Stefan Ossowiecki, Leonora Piper and Raphael Schermann.
20.
From 1905 to 1910, Charles Richet attended many seances led by the medium Linda Gazzera, claiming that she was a genuine medium who had performed psychokinesis, meaning that various objects had been moved in the seance room purely through the force of the mind.
21.
Charles Richet was fooled into believing that Joaquin Maria Argamasilla, known as the "Spaniard with X-ray Eyes", had genuine psychic powers.
22.
Charles Richet was a proponent of eugenics, advocating sterilization and marriage prohibition for those with mental disabilities.
23.
Charles Richet expressed his eugenist ideas in his 1919 book La Selection Humaine.
24.
Psychologist Gustav Jahoda has noted that Charles Richet "was a firm believer in the inferiority of blacks", comparing black people to apes, and intellectually to imbeciles.