Editing Botulinum toxin (section)

===Initial descriptions and discovery of ''Clostridium botulinum''===
One of the earliest recorded outbreaks of foodborne botulism occurred in 1793 in the village of [[Wildbad]] in what is now [[Baden-Württemberg]], Germany. Thirteen people became sick and six died after eating pork stomach filled with [[blood sausage]], a local delicacy. Additional cases of fatal food poisoning in [[Württemberg]] led the authorities to issue a public warning against consuming smoked blood sausages in 1802 and to collect case reports of "sausage poisoning".<ref name="Erbguth 2004">{{cite journal |vauthors = Erbguth FJ |title = Historical notes on botulism, Clostridium botulinum, botulinum toxin, and the idea of the therapeutic use of the toxin |journal = Movement Disorders |volume = 19 |issue = Supplement 8 |pages = S2–S6 |date = March 2004 |pmid = 15027048 |doi = 10.1002/mds.20003 |s2cid = 8190807 }}</ref> Between 1817 and 1822, the German physician [[Justinus Kerner]] published the first complete description of the symptoms of botulism, based on extensive clinical observations and animal experiments. He concluded that the toxin develops in bad sausages under anaerobic conditions, is a biological substance, acts on the nervous system, and is lethal even in small amounts.<ref name="Erbguth 2004"/> Kerner hypothesized that this "sausage toxin" could be used to treat a variety of diseases caused by an overactive nervous system, making him the first to suggest that it could be used therapeutically.<ref name="Erbguth 1999">{{cite journal |vauthors = Erbguth FJ, Naumann M |title = Historical aspects of botulinum toxin: Justinus Kerner (1786-1862) and the "sausage poison" |journal = Neurology |volume = 53 |issue = 8 |pages = 1850–1853 |date = November 1999 |pmid = 10563638 |doi = 10.1212/wnl.53.8.1850 |s2cid = 46559225 }}</ref> In 1870, the German physician Müller coined the term ''botulism'' to describe the disease caused by sausage poisoning, from the Latin word {{Lang|la|botulus}}, meaning 'sausage'.<ref name="Erbguth 1999"/>

In 1895, [[Émile van Ermengem]], a Belgian microbiologist, discovered what is now known as ''Clostridium botulinum'' and confirmed that a toxin produced by the bacteria causes botulism.<ref name="Monheit 2017">{{cite journal |vauthors = Monheit GD, Pickett A |title = AbobotulinumtoxinA: A 25-Year History |journal = Aesthetic Surgery Journal |volume = 37 |issue = suppl_1 |pages = S4–S11 |date = May 2017 |pmid = 28388718 |pmc = 5434488 |doi = 10.1093/asj/sjw284 }}</ref> On 14 December 1895, there was a large outbreak of botulism in the Belgian village of [[Ellezelles]] that occurred at a funeral where people ate pickled and smoked ham; three of them died. By examining the contaminated ham and performing autopsies on the people who died after eating it, van Ermengem isolated an anaerobic microorganism that he called ''Bacillus botulinus''.<ref name="Erbguth 2004"/> He also performed experiments on animals with ham extracts, isolated bacterial cultures, and toxins extracts from the bacteria. From these he concluded that the bacteria themselves do not cause foodborne botulism, but rather produce a toxin that causes the disease when ingested.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors = Pellett S |title = Learning from the past: historical aspects of bacterial toxins as pharmaceuticals |journal = Current Opinion in Microbiology |volume = 15 |issue = 3 |pages = 292–299 |date = June 2012 |pmid = 22651975 |doi = 10.1016/j.mib.2012.05.005 }}</ref> As a result of Kerner's and van Ermengem's research, it was thought that only contaminated meat or fish could cause botulism. This idea was refuted in 1904 when a botulism outbreak occurred in [[Darmstadt]], Germany, because of canned white beans. In 1910, the German microbiologist J. Leuchs published a paper showing that different strains of ''Bacillus botulinus'' caused the outbreaks in Ellezelles and Darmstad and that the toxins were serologically distinct.<ref name="Erbguth 2004"/> In 1917, ''Bacillus botulinus'' was renamed ''Clostridium botulinum'', as it was decided that the term ''Bacillus'' should refer to a group of aerobic microorganisms, while ''Clostridium'' would be used only to describe a group of anaerobic microorganisms.<ref name="Monheit 2017"/> In 1919, [[Georgina Burke]] used toxin-antitoxin reactions to identify two strains of ''Clostridium botulinum'', which she designated A and B.<ref name="Monheit 2017"/>