𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐮 𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐡 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐚

Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila

(24 April, 1787 -12 March, 1853)

Introduction 

• Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila was a Spanish toxicologist and Chemist, the founder of the science of toxicology. He is known as “Father of toxicology” and was the first great 19th-century exponent of forensic medicine. Orfila worked to make chemical analysis a routine part of forensic medicine and made studies of asphyxiation, the decomposition of bodies, and exhumation. He was a medical expert in criminal cases throughout his life and became a well- known figure of the century. 
• He has also received musical training as a singer in a church choir. He would later use these talents in the Parisian salons and social gatherings where intellectual elites were discussing topics such as religion, politics, and science.  
• He carried basic and practical studies on many theoretical and experimental aspects of physiology, toxicology, and forensic science, and developed appropriate detection methods for small quantities of the most common poisons (mercuric chloride, arsenic, phosphorus, morphine, and hydrogen cyanide), including the particular situation of corpses buried short or long times. 

Contributions 

• He refined chemical detection techniques, notably the Marsh test, which improved the accuracy of arsenic detection in bodies. 
• His pivotal role in the 1840 trial of Marie Lafarge, where he successfully identified arsenic in deceased husband, showcased the importance of scientific evidence in legal proceedings. 
• Orfila’s studies on poisons in the early 19th century advanced medical, biological, chemical, physiological, and legal sciences. His main contribution to toxicology is his 1814 treatise, Traité des Poisons Tirés des Règnes Minéral, Végétal et Animal ou Toxicologie Générale (A treatise on poisons found in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms or a general system of toxicology), in which he theorizes that arsenic and other mineral poisons are absorbed by the body, causing local inflammation in the digestive tract and ultimately Death.

Publications 

• Orfila wrote about 50 papers and books on the subjects of physiology, toxicology, forensic science, etc. In addition, he also studied the poisoning by barium chloride, cantharides, bleach, delphin, and gallnut, salts of lead, bismuth, tin, silver, gold, and zinc, nicotine and conicine; etc. 
• In addition, he reported the discovery of a biliary stone having no adipowax and an excess of the yellow matter; he studied the blue coloration of albumen under the action of HCl; the possibility of using the color of the hair for identification purposes, and of the phenomenon of suspension (of biological activity before death; no signs of life); compared cerebral matter with other body organs); etc. 

Written by 

Surbhi Puri 

Volunteer 

Shivi Forensics