Kissing rattlesnakes

A medical research article on unusual rattlesnake bites described several bizarre human-snake interactions, including an intoxicated 45 year old man who was “bitten on the tongue after placing his pet rattlesnake's head in his mouth in an attempt to calm the snake”. The authors note that “although human beings are not rattlesnake prey, envenomations (commonly) follow intentional encounters with snakes”. Bill Geissert found this information in “Rattlesnake envenomation: unusual case presentations”, by D A Tanen et al …