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The meeting "Orfila i la seva època" (Orfila and his
times) will be held in Maó (Minorca) on the 19th-20th March 2004. It aims
to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the death of Mateu J. Bonaventura
Orfila (1787- 1853), a very relevant toxicologist and chemist, and the
dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris from 1830 onwards. Born at Maó,
he studied medicine at the University of Valencia and chemistry in
Barcelona, to later follow his studies in Paris. Under the protection of
the chemists Vauquelin and Thenard, Orfila became a private lecturer on
chemistry in the French capital. In 1819 he was appointed professor of
legal medicine, and four years later he succeeded Vauquelin as professor
of chemistry at the Paris Faculty of Medicine. In 1830 he was nominated
dean of that faculty, a powerful and influent position inside French
medical community. He died, after a short illness, in Paris on the 12th of
March 1853.
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Orfila's chief publications are Traité des
poisons, or Toxicologie générale (1813); Eléments de chimie medicale
(1817); Leçons de médécine legale (1823); Traité des exhumations
juridiques (1830); and Recherches sur l'empoisonnement par l'acide
arsenieux (1841). He also wrote many valuable papers, chiefly on
subjects connected with legal medicine. |
Starting from Orfila's work, the meeting aims to build a broader and more
ambitious collective enterprise on the intersections between chemistry
and medicine during the first half of nineteenth century. For that purpose,
in a two days format, including some brief visit at relevant places in
the island, the meeting will be divided in three parts: (a) Orfila and
his times; (b) Medical chemistry (c). Chemistry, Legal Medicine and Toxicology.
The meeting second circular
offers more information about the contents.
A
revised version of the papers has been published in
CHEMISTRY,
MEDICINE AND CRIME: MATEU ORFILA (1787-1853) AND HIS TIMES [+]
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