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.
Émile van Ermengem
Émile Pierre-Marie van Ermengem (1851–1932, or 1851–1922 according to some sources) was a Belgian bacteriologist who, in 1895, isolated "Clostridium botulinum", the bacterium that causes botulism, from a piece of ham that had poisoned thirty four people.