Alan Scott, at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, pioneered the therapeutic use of botulinum toxin in focal hypercontraction of skeletal muscles.1 The toxin also inhibits the release of acetylcholine at motor nerve terminals and at cholinergic parasympathetic and sympathetic terminals producing autonomic symptoms. This autonomic effect has been used successfully in the treatment of hyperhidrosis2 and in smooth muscle hypercontraction of achalasia.3

Christian Andreas Justinus Kerner (1786–1862) was a German physician and poet. He published the earliest account of foodborne …