"S. marcescens" is the most characterized  species in this genus. During the summer in Padura, Italy, the town people discovered that their polenta dish turned red. At first, the people believed that this incident was caused by the devil. A pharmacist named Bartolomeo Bizzo was appointed to investigate the strange phenomenon. After several experiments, Bizzo presented his results. "S. marcescens" was first documented as red-colored putrefaction of polenta by Bartolomeo Bizio in Padua. The bacterium was later named in honor of Italian physicist Serafino Serrati. In 1945, an experiment was designed to establish the pathogenicity of "S. marcescens." Captain Tom Paine in the U.S army conducted an experiment at Camp Detrick, MD. In this experiment, he exposed four people to the bacteria in an enclosed space. The individuals soon developed symptoms such as body aches, malaise, green sputum production. A few of the individuals developed fever and chills while others still had a fever after 24 hours. Several other experiments were performed throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s to test the pathogenicity of "S. marcescens," but it wasn't until the 1970s that "S. marcescens" was confirmed as a human pathogen.