Therapeutic Uses of Botulinum Toxin

Justinius Kerner, a German medical officer and poet, was the first to realize that botulinum toxin potentially might be useful for therapeutic purposes. Kerner made this observation in 1822, but he did not call the toxin “botulinum toxin. ” Instead, Kerner called it the substance in “wirkenden stoffes,” which translates to “bad sausages. ” Kerner realized that there was a “fat poison” or “fatty acid” within sausages that produced the toxic effects that we now know as botulism. Nearly a century w