Bill Haast - snake venom expert extraordinaire - died on June 15, 2011 - 100 years old. He was an expert in snakes and snake venom. He was an expert at "milking" the venom from poisonous snakes and supplying the venom to medical facilities around the world so they could make anti-venom. An amazing fellow.
In the course of his career he was bitten by poisonous snakes 173 times! I guess if you are in his field you keep accurate bite counts for posterity. Here is a 1962 interview of him recovering in the hospital after one of his bites. Pay attention to the doctor at the end - he is funny...
Bill was in the habit of injecting himself every day with a cocktail of many different snake poisons to help build up his immunity to snake venom. He claimed that the venom shots were healthy for him. Look at the following video - filmed when he was 88 years old. You have to admit that he looks pretty good for his age. Maybe he was on to something.
Luckily you can not buy snake venom anywhere. At least not easily. If you could, there would be homeopathic medicine aficionados we would all have to worry about.
That is very interesting!
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