Abbé Felice Fontana (1730-1805): founder of modern toxinology

Abstract

One of the great experimentalists in toxinology, Felice Fontana, worked in Tuscany on the venom of the European viper; his classic text Traité sur le Vénin de la Vipère was published in 1781. Fontana identified fundamental questions which he proceeded to test experimentally using as quantitative an approach as possible within the technical confines of the mid to late eighteenth century. Amongst his findings are the discoveries that the constituents of viper venom can be precipitated by alcohol, that the action of the venom is myotoxic and that it produces not only coagulation of blood, but paradoxically, fluidity as well. After more than 200 years, it is time to honour his name and recall his work once more.