Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

: ''Mateu Josep Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger'') (24 April 1787 – 12 March 1853) was a Spanish

toxicologist Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating ex ...

and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

, the founder of the science of

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...

Role in forensic toxicology

If there is reason to believe that a murder or attempted murder may have been committed using poison, a

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to Criminal law, criminal and Civil law (legal system), civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standard ...

toxicologist is often brought in to examine pieces of evidence such as corpses and food items for poison content. In Orfila's time the primary type of poison in use was

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

, but there were no reliable ways of testing for its presence. Orfila created new techniques and refined existing techniques in his first treatise, ''Traité des poisons'', greatly enhancing their accuracy. In 1840,

Marie Lafarge Marie-Fortunée Lafarge (née Capelle; 15 January 1816 – 7 November 1852) was a French woman who was convicted of murdering her husband by arsenic poisoning in 1840. Her case became notable because it was one of the first trials to be follo ...

was tried for the murder of her husband. Although she had had access to arsenic, and arsenic had been found in the victim's food, none could be found in the corpse. Orfila was asked by the court to investigate. He discovered that the test used, the

Marsh test The Marsh test is a highly sensitive method in the detection of arsenic, especially useful in the field of forensic toxicology when arsenic was used as a poison. It was developed by the chemist James Marsh and first published in 1836. The metho ...

, had been performed incorrectly, and that there ''was'' in fact arsenic in the body; LaFarge was subsequently found guilty.

References

;General *

External links

Forensic Toxicology, how it solves cases and the major cases it solved

Books, biography and studies on Orfila * {{DEFAULTSORT:Orfila, Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure 1787 births 1853 deaths People from Mahón 19th-century French chemists 19th-century Spanish chemists Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery