<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Pere Mata i Fontanet (1811–1877) was the most important Spanish toxicologist in the nineteenth-century. However, he remained an invisible character outside Spanish borders. He was the author of the most influential Spanish treatise on legal medicine and toxicology, which had six editions but was never translated. His treatises did not include experimental results but rather a rhetorical discussion and a place where he discussed and claimed for changes to be made in those new sciences. His participation in famous trials such as poisoning cases contributed to increase his claimed authority as an expert. This paper will show that it was precisely during those trials, when experts had to face the puzzling questions of lawyers and jurors, that toxicology was built.</p></abstract>

Pere Mata i Fontanet (1811–1877) was the most important Spanish toxicologist in the nineteenth-century. However, he remained an invisible character outside Spanish borders. He was the author of the most influential Spanish treatise on legal medicine and toxicology, which had six editions but was never translated. His treatises did not include experimental results but rather a rhetorical discussion and a place where he discussed and claimed for changes to be made in those new sciences. His participation in famous trials such as poisoning cases contributed to increase his claimed authority as an expert. This paper will show that it was precisely during those trials, when experts had to face the puzzling questions of lawyers and jurors, that toxicology was built.

Poisons, trials and experts:

Institute for the History of Medicine and Science López Piñero

HoST - Journal  of History of Science and Technology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Pere Mata i Fontanet (1811–1877) and Spanish nineteenth-century toxicology

Pere Mata i Fontanet (1811–1877) was the most important Spanish toxicologist in the nineteenth-century. However, he remained an invisible character outside...

Poisons, trials and experts:

Published Online: Sep 01, 2017

Page range: 75 - 96

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/host-2017-0005

Keywords
Toxicology, poison, nineteenth century, Pere Mata, legal medicine

© 2017 Mar Cuenca-Lorente, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Poisons, trials and experts:

Published Online: Sep 01, 2017

Page range: 75 - 96

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/host-2017-0005

KeywordsToxicology, poison, nineteenth century, Pere Mata, legal medicine

© 2017 Mar Cuenca-Lorente, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Toxicology, poison, nineteenth century, Pere Mata, legal medicine