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 and first published in 1836.

Arsenic, in the form of white arsenic trioxide As₂O₃, was a highly favored poison, for it is odorless, 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 poudre de succession ("inheritance powder"). For the untrained, arsenic poisoning would have symptoms similar to cholera.