Studies of the effects of decomposition on exhumed bodies, 1831. Orfila was a towering figure in the emergent field of forensics. His 1831 treatise was the first book to be devoted solely to the subject of exhumation and decomposition. Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (1787-1853) was a Spanish-born French toxicologist and chemist, 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. Plate from Traite des exhumations juridiques (Treatise on Legal Exhumations) Artist, Hippolyte Vanderburch.