Having thus argued the matter out, was not Mr. Gibbs justified in asking—
What would be thought of the tinker who would knock a hole in the bottom of his saucepan lest one should be burned there in the ordinary way?
Yet it is just what the vaccinator does; and when he finds—as he might have foreseen, had he been governed by common sense—that his saucepan does not wear a bit the better, but rather the worse, he gravely endeavours to excuse the failure, by asserting that unfortunately he made the hole too big, or too little, too much on this side, or too much on that, or by offering some other equally wise excuse.
Lastly, there were the political and moral considerations involved in compulsory vaccination—the first attempt in England to confer on a medical prescription the force of law—
Surely, a wise Government may perceive that there are greater evils than the occasional outbreak of an epidemic. The systematic violation of human rights and natural affections, the uprooting from the human breast of feelings of self-reliance, a state religion in physic, coercion which may well be regarded as odious persecution, the belief of the poor that what they hold dearest is sacrificed to the selfish prejudices of the rich—any one of these is far worse than a pestilence.
Cannot they who believe in Vaccination protect themselves? Nobody seeks to hinder them; nobody presumes to dispute their right to adopt any medical practice, however questionable it may be. Why cannot they act with like forbearance to others? Surely, if freedom be more than a name, it implies the right of the freeman to reject not only that which other men may choose to regard as evil, but even that which they may combine to urge upon him as good....
How absurd that an attempt should be made to visit with punishment the want of belief in a scientific, or rather unscientific, dogma! How absurd to pretend to the possession of a prophylactic of such unquestionable potency that its acceptance requires the threat of force! In their anxiety to coerce others, compulsory vaccinators demonstrate their own defect of faith in the prescription which they assert affords complete security from Smallpox.
As observed, the service of Mr. Gibbs is entitled to special commemoration, because it was the first attempt to put the arguments against vaccination into systematic shape. He demonstrated the quackery of the practice, and the fallacies wherewith it was defended; and denounced the tyranny of the legislation that would compel those who recognised the imposture to submit to it. The service thus rendered by Mr. Gibbs constituted a ground of vantage for further operations: those who had to contend against the delusion had their hands strengthened, and their power of assault magnified, by what he was favoured to accomplish.
John Gibbs was born at Enniscorthy, County Wexford, on 25th May, 1811. Owing to the unsettled life of his father as Captain of the Royal Cork Volunteers, his education was desultory—at various schools, and under various masters. Sagacious, bright, earnest, and independent, he early manifested a passion for such things as made for human welfare, and improvement. Abstinence from alcohol, in connection with Father Mathew’s mission, had in him an enthusiastic advocate. A book by Captain Claridge on the water cure excited his interest, and led to the formation of the Enniscorthy Hydropathic Society. Anxious to master the mysteries of this new treatment of disease, he set out for Silesia in 1843, and placed himself under the instruction of Priessnitz, remaining with him as a chosen disciple until 1847, when he left with a certificate of competency.
