Principles of Post-mortem (Death Investigation) Forensic Toxicology
Sixteenth century scientist Paracelsus gave us the adage “the dose makes the poison”. Basically, he surmised that a certain amount of every substance, even water and air, can be toxic and those amounts can differ somewhat from person to person and substance to substance. Therein lies one of the most basic challenges of toxicology: is it the quantity of the toxin or the make-up of the person?
Forensic toxicology applies analytical toxicology to the purposes of the law, and includes the analysis of a variety of fluids and tissue samples to determine the absence or presence of drugs and poisons. Once the analytical component is complete, the toxicologist has the equally challenging aspects of interpreting the findings.