Book to Note

José Ramón Bertomeu-Sánchez and Agustí Nieto-Galan, editors, Chemistry, Medicine, and Crime: Mateu J. B. Orfila (1787–1853) and His Times. Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2006. xxv + 306 pp. $52.

Reviewed by Suzanne Bell

This volume provides a deep understanding of how and why forensic toxicology took root in the mid-19th century. The essays take as their starting point the life of Mateu Orfila, the Spanish-born French doctor generally regarded as the father of forensic chemistry. Orfila is best known for his application of the Marsh test for arsenic poisoning in the trial of Marie Lafarge. The publicity surrounding this trial, which resulted in the conviction of Lafarge for the murder of her husband, helped legitimize the emergent field of forensic toxicology and deterred other would-be arsenic poisoners. Casual readers may want to skip the lengthy treatments of experimental methods, philosophies, and classification near the beginning of the book; and though some may be put off by the inevitable discordance among chapters written by different authors, the various contributors have successfully drawn on historical literature to depict chemistry and toxicology of the time. The final chapter puts the development of a new generation of organic poisons into the context of the evolving philosophy and practice of organic chemistry, illustrating the role that toxicology and medicinal chemistry played in the emergence of this field.