Botulinum toxin poisoning has afflicted mankind through the mists of time. 
However, the first incident of food-borne botulism was documented as late as the 
18th century, when the consumption of meat and blood sausages gave rise to many 
deaths throughout the kingdom of Württemberg in South Western Germany. The 
district medical officer Justinus Kerner (1786--1862), who was also a well-known 
German poet, published the first accurate and complete descriptions of the 
symptoms of food-borne botulism between 1817 and 1822 and attributed the 
intoxication to a biological poison. Kerner also postulated that the toxin might 
be used for treatment purposes. In 1895, an outbreak of botulism in the small 
Belgian village of Ellezelles led to the discovery of the pathogen "Clostridium 
botulinum" by Emile Pierre van Ermengem. Modern botulinum toxin treatment was 
pioneered by Alan B. Scott and Edward J. Schantz in the early 1970s, when the 
type-A serotype was used in medicine to correct strabismus. Other preparations 
of the type-A toxin were developed and manufactured in the United Kingdom, 
Germany, and China, whereas a therapeutic type-B toxin was prepared in the 
United States. To date, the toxin has been used to treat a wide variety of 
conditions associated with muscular hyperactivity, glandular hypersecretions and 
pain.