ABSTRACT
Charles Richet was certainly audacious and he had enthusiasm in full measure, but he was, perhaps, less disciplined, less sharply focused on each of the areas of his investigation than were his two idols. Richet's tendency toward aloofness was evident in his deportment among his colleagues on the faculty. In choosing companions outside the faculty Richet sought characteristics somewhat at variance with the ones he admired in a savant. Richet's recreational social life was spent mainly in the company of the men who had been friends from his childhood but he loved the company of beautiful women, especially the high born. A prime objective for Richet after achieving his faculty appointment was to present himself as a candidate for election to the Societe de Biologie. Richet's interest in the body's heat production and heat loss had sprung in part from curiosity about how animals keep warm in a cold environment.
