An Army Veterinarian Created a Cobra Bite 'Vaccine' by Injecting Himself with Venom

When Dr. Herschel Flowers joined the Army in 1961, he probably had no idea he would be one of the leading veterinarians studying snakebites and developing antivenom. He also likely never considered injecting himself with cobra venom.

The veterinarian spent his Army career trying to develop a range of antivenoms for snakes all over the world. He wanted to mitigate the fear of snakes, increasingly used by the Viet Cong against U.S. troops in Vietnam, over the course of his research.

His primary goal was to immunize Special Forces soldiers and other U.S. troops who were operating in areas inhabited by the world's most dangerous snakes.

To do that, he often took on the role of human test subject, envenoming himself to test "vaccines" and other snake-bite treatments.

The idea of using the venom of a poisonous creature to create a gradual immunity to the venom itself wasn't new by 1961. It's one of the oldest studies in immunology. As early as 1870, British surgeons watched locals in the remote areas of the British Empire attempt to vaccinate themselves with the venom of their prey.

Snakes and other venomous animals aren't affected by their own venom. Snakes create antibodies for their venom that protect them from their own poison, as well as that from other members of their species.

In 1895, a British doctor was able to inoculate rabbits to withstand the venom of Indian cobras. After two months of treatment, the small rabbits survived enough cobra venom to kill two horses. Flowers wanted to create this effect for deployed American soldiers, and not just with cobras, but for any snake.

As a veterinarian for the U.S. Army Medical Research Lab at Fort Knox, Kentucky, he took care and milked the venom from at least 100 poisonous snakes every week. The lab then performed various experiments with the deadly poison. Flowers personally took more than 30 doses of venom to inoculate himself.

It was a useful effort, especially considering he was bitten by cobras twice. Flowers' work with dried snake venom did show promise in increasing his immunity against envenomation. His body began to naturally produce more antibodies toward snake venom.

His work helped the Army develop antivenom against North American coral snakes, kraits and other dangerous snakes. Flowers became so familiar with the snakes that as of 2019, civilian employees still remember a trick he would perform for coworkers.

"Flowers would put his hand up in front of the cobra," said Army civilian Morris Miller, who worked with Flowers. "The cobra could strike no farther than the height he could rise. If it was 18 inches, that was it, and Flowers would be at 19 inches away. We all thought he was the bravest man alive."

After his work at the Army Medical Research Lab, Flowers was sent to the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, where snake bites were a public health hazard. The Army sent him to work with the Clodomiro Picado Institute of the University of Costa Rica to develop an antivenom serum program.

Flowers went back to his usual methods; only this time, he used horses to test immunity, instead of himself. He milked snakes from all over Costa Rica in his rumpus room, took the horses' blood and used it as the foundation for a serum snake-bite treatment.

In 1967, they developed "polyvalent anti-ophidic serum" there, a serum capable of protecting against the venom of most Central American snakes, except for sea snake and the South American coral snake. Flowers and company created a treatment for the coral snake later that same year.

Today, the Clodomiro Picado Institute is an active and independent producer of snake antivenom, in a world critically short on such supplies.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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