RICHE

RICHE Charles (Charles Richet), known French physiologist, born in 1850. Beginning his scientific career under the guidance of Claude Bernard and Marey, in 1877 he defended his dissertation on "Recherches experimentales et cliniques sur la sensibilite" (P.) and in his subsequent works devoted much attention to questions of neuromuscular physiology. His works in this field are still well-known, especially the chapter on the physiology of muscles and nerves in "Physiologie" (v. I-IV, P., 1882-1909). Upon taking the chair of physiology at the University of Paris, R. initially worked on questions of thermoregulation; he subsequently combined individual phases of his experimental research on animal heat into his well-known classical work on animal heat, published in "Dictionnaire de physiologie", v. III, p. 81-271, P., 1898. Alongside purely physiological problems, R. devoted much effort to questions of pathology and in 1888 first formulated the concept of "passive immunity" and thereby laid the foundation for modern serotherapy. Among his most significant scientific achievements should be recognized his discovery (1892) of the phenomena of increased sensitivity-anaphylaxis (see), to which his comprehensive work "L'Anaphylaxie" (P., 1911) is dedicated. Primarily for these works, he received the Nobel Prize in 1914. R.'s scientific activity is characterized by extreme diversity. On physiological psychology, together with Charcot, he worked on questions of artificially induced somnambulism and others. The wave of idealistic reaction and mysticism of the post-war years, which reflects the crisis of the capitalist system, captured R., who became the leader of the spiritualist movement and began to develop questions of telepathy ("La metapsychique", P., 1922). R.'s editorial activity is very significant. In 1895 he began publishing "Dictionnaire de physiologie" (v. I-VII, P., 1895-1908), in which the most prominent representatives of physiological science participated.