Hmm. The Smithsonian Institute now includes toxicology in its portfolio of expertise. Interesting.
A person may develop an immunity to many toxins by taking gradually larger doses. It’s amazing what the human body can adapt to.
I am originally from the Southern United States, where this type of thing is somewhat common (usually in more rural areas). I have attended one snake-handling service.
It’s common knowledge (in the case of snakes) that the snakes are milked beforehand and drugged (usually with ether) and may be chilled as well (reptiles become sluggish when they’re cold). And these snakes are accustomed to human handling. Nevertheless, it’s not terribly uncommon for someone to be bitten (though the risk is small because the snake has been milked, and vipers don’t replenish their venom as quickly as some other snake species).
At the service I attended, there were two rattlesnakes (vipers). They seemed to be drugged (they hardly moved) and they were only handled by certain people (who seemed adept at it). Nobody was bitten. The episode did not last long (presumably because the effect of ether or cold wears off rather quickly).
The whole thing is based on the last few verses of the Gospel of Mark. Most scholars now believe these verses were not actually part of the original Gospel. In most modern Bibles, these verses will separated, bracketed, or at least noted as being highly suspicious. These verses are widely believed to be the work of another writer many years later.
