Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (1787-1853) was a Spanish-born French toxicologist and chemist, known as the founder of the science of toxicology. In Orfila's time the primary type of poison in use was arsenic, but there were no reliable ways of testing for its presence. Orfila created new techniques and refined existing techniques in his first treatise, Traite des poisons, greatly enhancing their accuracy.