For practicing postmortem forensic toxicologists there are a small number of undisputed first line texts, such as Baselt's Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man, relied on daily for interpretive assistance. There are then the second line texts such as Ellenhorn and Barceleoux, and Goodman and Gilman, relied on for more specific pharmacological information, and clinical presentation, and in cases where there is no prior published data to assist in interpretation. Spencer and Schaumburg's text would fit well on the shelf beside these other volumes, as a resource for some of the specific neurotoxicological mechanisms that can be invoked to rationalize or explain the evident consequences of overdose with therapeutic or abuse drugs, or exposure to environmental, bacterial, animal, and fungal toxins.