Clostridium botulinum and Other Clostridia that Produce Botulinum Neurotoxin

Van Ermengem (1897) first established that botulism is caused by a toxin consumed in a food and then isolated the organism responsible for the toxin from the food. He named the organism Bacillus botulinus. As subsequent incidents of botulism were investigated, it was found that sometimes the toxins had different serological properties and that the causative organisms had varying physiological characteristics. The organisms were always anaerobic and formed spores, and they were later placed into the genus Clostridium (Bengtson, 1924); the genus Bacillus was restricted to aerobic spore-forming rods.