author
Charles Richet
1850–1935
A Nobel Prize-winning French physiologist, he helped reveal how the immune system can sometimes turn dangerously against the body. His work on anaphylaxis changed medicine, while his wide-ranging curiosity also led him into writing and controversial studies of psychic phenomena.
1 Audiobook
The Pros and Cons of Vivisection
by Charles Richet
About the author
Born in Paris in 1850, Charles Richet became one of France’s leading physiologists and taught at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris and at the Collège de France. He won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on anaphylaxis, the severe allergic reaction that can occur after a body has been sensitized to a substance.
Richet’s research ranged widely across physiology and medicine, and he was known for an energetic, restless intellect. Alongside his scientific career, he also wrote fiction and essays, showing an interest in literature as well as laboratory science.
He is also remembered for pursuits that sit more uneasily with his legacy today. Richet took a strong interest in psychical research and wrote about paranormal phenomena, and he was associated with eugenic ideas that are now widely rejected. He died in Paris in 1935.