Botulinum toxin
In 1895 (seventy-five years later), Émile van Ermengem, professor of bacteriology and a student of Robert Koch, correctly described "Clostridium botulinum" as the bacterial source of the toxin. Thirty-four attendees at a funeral were poisoned by eating partially salted ham, an extract of which was found to cause botulism-like paralysis in laboratory animals. Van Ermengem isolated and grew the bacterium, and described its toxin, which was later purified by P Tessmer Snipe and Hermann Sommer.
The Satan Bug (novel)
During the theft the current head of security is killed with a cyanide-laced sweet, presumably given to him by an insider he trusted. A variety of scientists and support staff come under suspicion, and it emerges that several of them have been coerced by blackmail or kidnapping to help the principal villain, without knowing his identity. The villain releases botulinum toxin over an evacuated area of East Anglia, killing hundreds of livestock and proving that his threat to use the Satan Bug should be taken seriously. He takes Cavell's wife, Mary, hostage and sets off to London to blackmail the British government by threatening to release the "Satan Bug" in the City of London's financial district. The villain uses his hostage to capture Cavell and several police officers and attempts to kill them with botulinum toxin. Cavell escapes, though one constable is poisoned and dies rapidly. (For dramatic purposes this is from convulsions like nerve agent or strychnine poisoning, rather than the slower paralysis and respiratory failure usually associated with botulism.)