Editing Marsh test (section)

{{Short description|Method for detecting arsenic}}
[[File:Marsh test apparatus.jpg|thumb|right|Apparatus for the Marsh test]]

The '''Marsh test''' is a highly sensitive method in the detection of [[arsenic]], especially useful in the field of [[forensic toxicology]] when arsenic was used as a [[poison]]. It was developed by the chemist [[James Marsh (chemist)|James Marsh]] and first published in 1836.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Account of a method of separating small quantities of arsenic from substances with which it may be mixed |journal=Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal |volume=21 |year=1836 |pages=229–236 |last=Marsh |first=James |url=https://archive.org/stream/edinburghnewphil21edin#page/228/mode/2up }}</ref>  The method continued to be used, with improvements, in forensic toxicology until the 1970s.<ref>{{cite journal |title=James Marsh and the poison panic |journal=The Lancet |volume=381 |year=2013 |pages=2247–2248 |last=Hempel |first=Sandra |issue=9885 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61472-5 |pmid=23819157 |s2cid=36011702 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Arsenic, in the form of white [[arsenic trioxide]] {{chem2|As2O3}}, was a highly favored poison, being odourless, easily incorporated into food and drink, and before the advent of the Marsh test, untraceable in the body. In France, it came to be known as ''{{lang|fr|poudre de succession}}'' ("inheritance powder"). For the untrained, [[arsenic poisoning]] will have symptoms similar to [[cholera]].{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}