The Miracle of Middleboro

When science had done so much, what might science not do? In Massachusetts last week, many a fanner and townsman listened to word of the newest miracle, eager to believe. And the wonder grew--for a while.

Some thought it all started when the Clark Poultry Farms at Middleboro had a bout with coccidiosis (poultry disease) six weeks ago. The Clarks, father & son, tried the medicines they knew, but still their chickens died. At last they called on a dark, popeyed man named John Brown, who lived nearby. He had, said rumor, a mysterious something, vaguely connected with atomic energy and called "the master cell," that could work scientific wonders.

Brown gave the Clarks a perforated concrete disc and told them to soak it in water and feed the water to the chickens. The Clarks followed directions. Like a miracle, they reported, the "coxy" stopped spreading. Some of the afflicted chickens even made a comeback.

The news spread from farm to farm. Other poultrymen asked for the magic discs, and Brown gave them freely. The master cells, he explained, need 72 hours to mature; they spread through the water, endowing it with life-giving energy.

Fertility Up. And there were the witnesses. Said Merrill Sampson of Lakeville, director of the State Duck Growers' Association: "Brown's master cell upped my egg production 50%. Upped fertility 20%. I thought it was a lot of hokum, but it is the fountain of youth." Reported Dairyman Wilfred Schobel: "This stuff makes the coats of horses and cows shine like mirrors. Makes cows give more milk and eat less. Makes 'em more quiet, too. Took the wiggle out of one real mean cow I own. She just stands there now--all full of the master cell--and behaves."

Farmers began to gather at John Brown's farm to stare with the worshiping eyes of religious devotees. Behind the house was a shed with a sign: "Cell Laboratories--Natural Sciences." The cellar of the house contained three barrels covered with scraps of awning. To the uninitiated eye, the barrels seemed to hold only stagnant water, but Brown would murmur: "This is Life."

Newspapers picked up the story. One reporter, who came to scoff, turned into a pious member of the cult. Long lines of cars jammed the road in front of John Brown's farm. More than a thousand people crowded around the shrine. The master of the master cell had to call for police to keep them from trampling his cell-treated corn.

Fifth Dimension. The more people came, the wilder John Brown talked. He declaimed like a prophet, his dark eyes glowing. "For five years," he told a newsman, "I've been living in the fifth dimension. The master cell has 38 crystals. This develops in an evolutionary process, and the crystals increase. After a while, we'll all be made up of crystals, and we'll all be living in the fifth dimension. We'll all be living in space, and there will be no such thing as time. It'll be a beautiful world."

Cripples and invalids came. "My discovery," Brown proclaimed, "will increase the life span of man to 120 years. Don't worry. My cell also extends the sexual life of man ... It will make old women feel like kittens, and old men potent. I can shake the hand of an asthmatic," said Brown, "and he will be well."

A man testified that the doctors had given him up for dead. He had drunk master-cell water and was still alive. A veteran said that he had been cured of violent malaria. A woman said she had got rid of her corns.

Not all John Brown's devotees were simple farmers. It soon came out that the financier of the master cell "experiments" was Gustave W. Goerner, soon-to-retire New England sales manager of a subdivision of the great Du Pont Co. He and other substantial-sounding citizens were talking about organizing a nonprofit foundation to make the master cell available to all humanity.

"Peace to All Men." Other things came out too. This was not the first time that Brown had claimed a wonder-working discovery. Born in Portugal of a U.S. seaman father, he had owned a drugstore in New Bedford, Mass., but had also run a "clinic" where patients were treated for everything from cancer to polio. On Nov. 13, 1939, he had been fined $1,000 for illegal practice of medicine, later had the sentence nullified. John Brown says he was framed.

Scientists (including a Massachusetts state chemist) have not been able so far to find anything unusual about John Brown's concrete discs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still investigating.

Last week Brown's cult was still growing; crowds still swarmed to his farm. He had begun to intone like the Psalmist and to compare himself (favorably) with Christ. The master cell, said Brown, "takes all the fight and hatred out of men and animals alike. It will prevent disease and pestilence. It will prevent famine. It will make pigs fatter; make cows produce more milk. It makes the atom bomb obsolete . . . The master cell is my God, and it will bring peace to all men."

Then, despite the flocking people, Brown locked up and went "to the country." Said a lieutenant: "He was tired and needed a rest."

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