results could be obtained. Not surprisingly, the FDA was in doubt whether this particular
physician should be called as an expert witness because portions of his testimony would be
favorable to the accumulator.
Two cancer studies using mice were conducted by the Jackson Laboratory in Bar
Harbor, Maine. The results showed no significant differences between the control groups
and the groups treated with the orgone accumulator in rate of death, final age at death,
weight gain, or malignancy of the autopsied tissue^17.
The medical orgonomist Richard Blasband commented on this particular study:
This test is so different from Reich’s mouse experiments that it cannot be
considered a valid test of his claims. The Jackson Laboratory used transplanted
tumor cells instead of letting the tumors develop spontaneously. Spontaneous
tumors grow more slowly and permit a natural development of defensive reac-
tions....
Of greatest importance is the fact that the treatment rooms at the Jackson
Laboratory were located only 100 feet away from two X-ray machines which were
used at least several times a week.... When the investigator in charge of the exper-
iment was informed of this fact, he admitted not having read any of the literature
where the Oranur problem was discussed. He said he wished to remain “complete-
ly objective.”^18The FDA carried out a careful replication of the Reich Blood Test. As we have
seen, Reich had found that the rate and form of disintegration of red blood cells into bio-
nous vesicles was one indication of the orgonotic vitality of an organism. The FDA test
consisted of examining the rate of disintegration of red blood cells from two groups of
subjects, those believed to be healthy (all employees of the Nassau Hospital in Mineola, New
York) and those with a known diagnosis ofmalignance ofvarious organs. There were fif-
teen subjects in each control group^19.
The FDA made no statistical analysis ofthe differences found. The researchers
attributed their differences to extraneous factors such as problems in covering the prepara-
tion between observations and the inconstancy of red blood cell disintegration from day to
day.In his subsequent analysis ofFDA data, Richard Blasband in fact found the results an
impressive confirmation of Reich’s findings: two and a half times as many cancer patients
as “normals”showed a 50 percent blood cell disintegration within five minutes^20.
Whether we are dealing with positive or negative replications, the FDA tests opened
the way to all kinds of exchanges of views that might have led to further fruitful experimen-
tation. But they were not conducted with this aim in mind. By and large, the FDA’s investi-
gators eagerly set about proving the FDA right and were uninterested in any findings that
might shake their preconceived judgment. However, these researchers and investigators, usu-
ally ineptly and riddled with bias but on occasion more objectively, were attempting to reach
the core ofthe issue—the efficacy of the accumulator. It is by such tests, properly conduct-
28 : The FDA Injunction and Reich’s Responses: 1951-1955 387