Charles Robert Richet and some milestones in the history of allergies

French medicine in the second half of the 19th century includes the seminal contributions of Claude Bernard, Lasèque, Trousseau, Jaccoud and Charcot, and counted among the most notable representatives is Professor Charles Robert Richet, Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine and Physiology in 1913, for the discovery of anaphylaxis. With his versatile personality he was involved in many different fields. His investigative work included diverse themes such as respiration, digestion, epilepsy and the regulation of body heat. To him we owe three new words, and as such, three new concepts: anaphylaxis, polypnea and zoomotherapy. Richet also excelled as a bacteriologist, pathologist, medical statistician, poet, novelist, playwright, historian, psychologist, parapsychologist, pacifist, philosopher and bibliographer. Especially interested in telepathy, and in general, extrasensory perception phenomena, he contributed decisively to the creation of a new science, metapsychics.