The Robesonian from Lumberton, North Carolina • Page 3

Cobra Bite Doesn't Bother Him Venom Producer, Bitten Often By Serpents. Hopes Someday Poison Will Help Polio Victims BY BEN FUNK Al' Kewsfeatures MIAMI, Fla. Clarita Haast. a shapely blonde, wonders what would happen if her husband, Bill, ever bit her. Bill has as much venom in his system as the meanest Cobra that ever slithered through an Indian bush.

He's so full of it he can laugh off a Cobra bite. The question is, how would the Cobra make out if he bit back? Bill and Clarita operate the Miami. -Serpentarium, home of 500 poisonous reptiles gathered from ail parts of the world. Bill- takes venom from the snakes for use in research laboratories, and does it as nonchalantly as a farmer juices a gentle Jersey cow. When he started his business, which he believes is the only one of its type in the United States Bill knew he was going to be bitten sooner or later.

For any kind of a life expectancy at all, he had to somehow himself immune to snakebite. He began injecting Cobra venom into his system, starting' with a ti- ny'amount and gradually working up to a lethal dose. He figures that in three years he has absorbed enough venom to kill 50 men. 'Bill didn't have to speculate for long about whether his system would work. His snakes proved it for him.

He has been bitten by nine Cobras and 21 other times by rattlers, mocassins, corals and va- i ADAM AXD EVE never did tills with a snake. Clarita Haast extracts the venom, while husband Bill squeezes deadly reptile, not mind- Ing bites. rious other kinds of. reptilian kil- tory for venom production. I "My idea," he says, was to believes he is 1 the only man (develop a good, standard grade of in the world who is genuinely im- i venom that could be dispensed at rnune to all types of snake venom, ilbwer cost." One hundred times every day, he Venoms imported from India and DON'T MISS The M1UHTV MAPLES MOTORS PH.

3946 picks up a vicious, hissing Cobra and casually estracts the venom that doctors use to ueaden the pain of such diseases as arthritis and which some day may prove a powerful ally in the war on infantile paralysis. The University of Miami research department, acting on a theory by Haast, has been experimenting for several months with Cobra venom in treatment of polio. No announcements have been made, but reports of astonishing results have been 'drifting out of the laboratory. i Wiry, reddish-haired Bill Haast loves to work with snakes. That has been his ambition since, at the age of 12, he argued his reluctant mother into Jetting him keep snakes in the house as a hobby.

in powdered form, now cost about $1,200 an ounce. Haast has cut that price in half. Even 5600 an ounce sounds'high, but the venom goes a long way. It's an effective pain-killer when' diluted 3,000 times. It takes extractions from 600 snakes to produce an ounce.

For Haast, that means six days of work so dangerous there isn't an insurance company in the world that would give him a ten-cent policy. To get the venom, he grasps a snake at the back of the head and thrusts it toward a gladd vial covered with rubbery material that gives the snake comething to sink his fangs in. When the snake bites, the clear, amber-colored venom Social Security tard Needed By Self-Employed Are you one of the millions of self-employed people newly covered under Federal old-age and survivors If you are, you need a sdtiai security account- number card, according to Vernon D. Herbert, manager of the Fay- Social Security office. "Self employed people who were brought under the Social Security Act by last, year's changes in the law will report their net income from self-employment at the same time they make their Federal income tax returns early next year," Herbert said.

At that time, they will enter their social security numbft-s on the tax form, together with other information. I Mr. Herbert indicated that though the numbers will not actually be needed until early next year, self-employed businessmen should apply for them' in the near future. This will help avoid any delay when the numbers are needed. "If you have ever had a social security number, that same num- her should be used," Herbert "If you've lost your card, we can! get a copy of it for you, bearing that same number." Both new and duplicate cards' can be obtained through the Fay- etteville social security office.

The address is Room 307, Huske Build-; ing in Fayettev'ille. Herbert aslcs all self-employed people who have any questions about their cover-1 age under social security to get in touch with this office. THE ROBESONIAN, LUMBERTON, N. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1951 Pagt Thrfr: Steve Owen, coach of the New York football Giants, first played football at Phillips University in Enid, in 1918. His first bite, by a copperhead cW from the fan inl the vial when he was 15, didn't sway him Bin made a fortunate marriage.

from his goal of building a labora- Clarita, a photographer's assistant, couldn't recall ever having seen a live snake, even in a zoo, until she met Bill. But, like him, she wasn't afraid of them and In no time at all she was handling everything from a rattler to a medium-sized boa constrictor without a shudder. At the time he was married, Bill had 40 snakes and no customers for the venom. So, while the construction work on his laboratory was in progress, he used his venom on himself. Clarita helped with the injections, carefully noting his reactions on a chart.

A friend, Carl Kauffeld, curator of the Staten Island zoo, objected to Bill's unique experiment. He said he wouldn't give a nickel for Bill's chance to survive the shots for three years. BiU started by diluting the venom I.OOp times in a saline solution. Then he worked up to a 100- to-1 dose, sometimes testing the A FOOD "STORE'' IN YOUR HOME THAT SAVES YOU MONEY! ONLY DOWN 18 MONTHS TO FAY FARMERS TAKE 2 FALLS TO PAY ll-CU-FT FOOD FREEZER SAVE $120 A YEAR ON FOOD BILLS! Set THIS UAL MONfY-SAVfft TODAY! You can buy food in quantity, when it't cheapest freeze it and store it in your G-E Food Freezer. You can buy frozen foods by the case even freeze fruits and vegetables from your own garden! LOW OPERATING COST) You'll be amazed at how little it costs to run your G-E Food Freezer! And the dependable G-E sealed-in refrigerating system will give you years of faithful service.

More than 2,700,000 of these G-E lystems have been ia use 10 years or longer! Ptrttcf-tMl CaWMt CwntnntlMl NH Automatic Llfktl injections first on animals. One which killed a goat in three hours, caused him no discomfort. His first bite after he began the injections was by a Cantil, a Mexican mocassin whose venom has been known to kill a Jiorsc in 20 minutes. Bill took it in stride. In the next 14 months, while handling a total of 32,000 snakes, ho was bitten an average of once every 4G days.

Meanwhile, he shot a lethal amount of venom into his arms every 45 days. His charts noted no reactions to the snakebites beyond a slight local swelling. Midway in the laboratory construction, Haast went broke. But Clarita saved the project. She suggested they open the half-finished place to the tourists who daily streamed past its location on the overseas highway to Key West.

Haast had only the 40 snakes to show to visitors, but on the first day 160 people paid a 50-cent' admission charge and were delighted with his feats of handling the reptiles and extracting the venom. Business picked up rapidly and now, in the winter season, more than 1,500 people visit the Serpen- I tarium daily lo see his snakes sun- ping themselves or dangling from branches in three landscaped pits. The laboratory was completed and Bill, on expeditions to Af- Iriea, India and Siam, has acquired 500 snakes of 40 varieties, i Snakes are nervous creatures' and often the venom extraction upsets them so badly they quit eating. result is a high death rate and high overhead costs. To overcome the eating problem, Haast developed a method of force feeding.

A trip (0 Africa led indirectly to Bill's theory of venom's possibilities in polio treatment. For four months, he discontinued his regular injections of venom and much of his immunity wore off. On his return, he was bitten in quick succession by two Cobras. Bill nearly died that time. Clarita carefully noted his i-eactions on the chart.

After his recovery, Bill noted while studying the chart that his symptoms had been exactly the same as those of polio. He suggested to the University of Miami research staff that venom might be used to make a po- iio serum. Work on the idea was started immediately and the project has reached the stage where venom has been tried on human polio victims, no announcements have been made of the results. Uncle Sain Says Extra ELECTRICAL DEPT. Pates Supply Inc.

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