Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/367

 EICHEPIN

EICHTEK

guished in medicine. In his eagerness to lessen pain and misery he introduced no less than fourteen new anassthetics in medical and surgical practice. D. Nov. 21, 1896.

RICHEPIN, Jean, French poet, novelist, and dramatist. B. 1849. Ed. L.ycees Napoleon and Charlemagne, and Ecole Normale Superieure. A franc tireur in the war of 1870, Eichepin, who was a fiery Algerian by birth, took to Parisian journalism and the composition of poems which enlivened the Quartier Latin. For the first volume which he published (La chanson des gueux, 1886) he got a month in prison and a fine of five hundred francs. He went to sea for a time, then returned to Paris and continued to produce rebel lious poetry, as well as novels and dramas. In 1883 he took the leading part, with Sara Bernhardt, in his Nana Sahib. Both in the novel and on the stage he has had brilliant success ; while his opinion of religion may be read by the adventurous in Les blasphemes (1884) and other of his works. From 1883 to 1891 he was banished from France. To-day he is an Officer of the Legion of Honour, member of the Academy and the Conseil Superieur de 1 Enseignement, Vice-President of the Societe des Auteurs Dramatiques, President of the Association Generale des Publicistes Fran9ais, and one of the most eminent of Parisian writers.

RICHET, Professor Charles, M.D., French physiologist. B. Aug. 26, 1850. Ed. Lycee Bonaparte. He began to teach physiology in 1878, and in 1887 he was appointed professor at the Medical Faculty of Paris. He has done distinguished research in his science, and is the dis coverer of serotherapy ; and he has written novels and poetry, in addition to his scientific works. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine. He edited the Revue Scientifique for many years, and is a member of the Academy of Medicine and President of the French Arbitration Society. Professor Eichet is also Presi- G61

dent of the French Society for Psychical Eesearch, and is often quoted as a Spiritu alist. It is true that he credits mediums with abnormal powers, but he has never endorsed Spiritualism. In his latest work he speaks of Spiritualism as containing &quot; many truths which for us are still enveloped in mystery &quot; (Should Spiritism be Seriously Studied ?, 1912, p. 46). He contributes to the organ of Professor Haeckel s Monist League.

RICHTER, Johann Paul Friedrich

(&quot;Jean Paul &quot;), German writer. B. Mar. 21, 1763. Ed. Hof Gymnasium and Leipzig University. Eichter studied theology at the university, but he fell under the influence of Eousseau and deserted the Church for the school, then turned to literature. After some years of struggle and privation, he settled at Weimar in 1796, and published his Blumen-, Frucht-, und Dornenstiicke (4 vols., 1796-97), which at once placed him in the position of one of Germany s greatest humorists and satirists. In 1804 he settled at Bayreuth. Besides his poetry and stories, &quot; Jean Paul &quot; wrote an important work on aesthetics (Vorschule der Aesthetik, 1804), and another on paedagogy (Levana, 1807). His complete works were issued in sixty volumes in 1879. De Quincey wrote a biography of him (1845), and there are innumerable lives and studies of him in German. Eichter remained very much in the position -of Eousseau, as regards religion, all his life, though, as he was more developed emotionally than intel lectually, he shows many moods and phases. Kahnis says in his Internal His tory of German Protestantism (1856, p. 78) : &quot; Jean Paul s religion was a chaotic fer menting of the mind, out of which now Deism, then Christianity, then a new religion, seems to come forth. The pre vailing religious view was a sentimental Deism.&quot; His final creed is partly given in his posthumous Selina, oder ilber die Unsterblichkeit der Seele (2 vols., 1827). He accepts immortality, but on philo- 662