Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (1787-1853): The Founder of Modern Toxicology

Abstract

Mateu Joseph Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger was a prominent Spanish chemist and scholar of the 19th century whose experimental work has enormously contributed to the progress of toxicology. Being a pioneer with his research on the effects of toxins and antidotes on live animals, he established basic principles of modern medicine and pharmacology. Orfila improved the accuracy of several chemical techniques such as the Marsh test. He served as an expert and well-known scientific investigator in important legal trials involving alleged poisonings with arsenic and other chemical substances. In 1840, he was asked to investigate the notorious case of Charles Lafarge's death, whose wife had been accused with murder by poisoning his food with arsenic. After four failed chemical analyses, Orfila was finally able to detect arsenic in the victim's body, leading the court to convict Madame Lafarge. Due to his overall contribution to the field, Orfila is considered the father of modern toxicology.

FIGURE 1.

Mateu Joseph Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger. Credit: Pierre Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila. Lithograph. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark

FIGURE 2.

Caricature of Mateu Orfila performing experiments with dogs (ca. 1838). Small bronze sculpture. Musée Carnavalet, Paris. Reproduced in Juan Hernández Mora, “Orfila. El hombre, la vocación, la obra,” Revista de Menorca, 49 (1953): 1-121, p. 120 (plate XXI). Private collection.

FIGURE 3.

Marsh equipment for the detection of arsenic. Credit: Marsh James, “Account of a method of separating small quantities of arsenic from substances with which it may be mixed”, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 1836;21:229-236.

FIGURE 4.

Modification of the Marsh equipment to detect arsenic in large amounts of liquid. Credit: Marsh James, “Account of a method of separating small quantities of arsenic from substances with which it may be mixed”, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 1836;21:229-236.