In his foreword to the first edition of Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons, Hodge (1975) stated that the toxicologist was originally the coroner's chemist. This was probably meant to show the humble beginnings of toxicology. However, the first forensic toxicologists, Orfila and Christison, were physicians who developed the art of chemical analysis and applied it to the investigation of criminal poisoning. Later, in the United States and elsewhere, as government agencies for the medicolegal investigation of death were formed, forensic toxicologists were relegated to the role of bench chemist, performing routine analyses and having little or no responsibility outside the laboratory. Mason (1979), noting the failure of forensic medicine to develop into an academic discipline in the United States, referred to this as a "period of stagnation."

    Today, with the proliferation of professional societies and certification boards in toxicology, this situation is changing. Now it is essential that the director of a forensic toxicology laboratory have had training in biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology in addition to analytical chemistry. This is due in part to the natural maturation of forensic toxicology as a science, but the very recent acceleration of this process is due largely to the sudden focus of world attention on the problems of environmental contamination by man-made toxins. The changing emphasis of research funds, graduate training programs, and professional societies in favor of toxicology has had its effect on forensic toxicology, which ten years ago was a well-kept secret. Formal educational programs in forensic toxicology in the United States have blossomed from 4 identifiable in 1972 (Cravey and Baselt, 1975) to 18 in 1979 (Winek, 1979). It is now possible for a forensic toxicologist to be professionally certified by three separate boards, the American Board of Clinical Chemistry (founded in 1962), the American Board of Forensic Toxicology (1975), and the American Board of Toxicology (1980). Forensic toxicologists are now more frequently found in academic departments of pathology, pharmacology, or chemistry where they perform teaching, research, and analytical service work for private or public agencies on a contractual basis.