:Mathieu Orfila
{{Short description|Spanish toxicologist and chemist (1787–1853)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Mathieu Orfila
| image = Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila.jpg
| image_size = 260px
| caption =
| birth_date = 24 April 1787
| birth_place = Mahón, Menorca,
Kingdom of Spain
| death_date = 12 March 1853 (aged 65)
| death_place = Paris, Île-de-France,
French Empire
| residence =
| citizenship = Spanish
| nationality = Spanish
| field = Toxicology and chemistry
| work_institutions =
| alma_mater = University of Valencia
University of Barcelona
| doctoral_advisor =
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Founded toxicology
| author_abbrev_bot =
| author_abbrev_zoo =
| prizes =
| religion =
| footnotes =
| signature =
}}
Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (Catalan: Mateu Josep Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger) (24 April 1787 – 12 March 1853) was a Spanish toxicologist and chemist, regarded as father of modern toxicology.
Role in forensic toxicology
If there is reason to believe that a murder or attempted murder may have been committed using poison, a forensic toxicologist pharmaceutical is often engaged 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, but there were not any reliable ways of testing for its presence. Orfila created new techniques, refined existing techniques and described them in his first treatise, Traité des poisons (1813), greatly enhancing their accuracy.
In 1840, Marie Lafarge 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, had been performed incorrectly, and that there was in fact arsenic in the body; LaFarge was subsequently found guilty.
References
{{reflist}}
;General
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book
|author = J. R. Bertomeu-Sánchez, A. Nieto-Galan
|title = Chemistry, medicine and crime: Mateu J B Orfila (1787–1853) and his times
|publisher = Science History Publications
|year = 2006
|location = Sagamore Beach, MA
|pages = 311
|url = http://www.shpusa.com/books/chapters/Orfila.pdf
|isbn = 0-88135-275-6
|url-status = dead
|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060720170552/http://www.shpusa.com/books/chapters/Orfila.pdf
|archivedate = 2006-07-20
}}
{{refend}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050217035249/http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/toxicology/3.html Forensic Toxicology, how it solves cases and the major cases it solved]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050325025757/http://www.bium.univ-paris5.fr/histmed/medica/orfila.htm Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Médecine de Paris]: Books, biography and studies on Orfila
- {{EB1911|wstitle=Orfila, Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orfila, Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure}}
Category:19th-century French chemists
Category:19th-century Spanish chemists