(John Gibbs, with his signature)
Whilst acquiring his art with Priessnitz, he communicated his experiences to his Enniscorthy friends, who published them in the Wexford newspapers, a selection from which was reproduced as Letters from Grœfenberg, in 1847. A passage in one of these letters, dated 27th November, 1844, indicates the manner in which his attention was drawn to smallpox—
Another case of Smallpox has just been treated by Priessnitz. The patient is the daughter of a peasant in the neighbourhood, and is about twenty years old. She was confined for eight days, and was most profusely covered with the eruption. An Italian physician said that he never saw the symptoms come out better. She had at first the usual treatment—wet sheets, wet rubbings, and tepid baths; and, after the eruption appeared, three wet sheets and three tepid baths daily. She will not have the slightest mark. Under the water cure Smallpox appears to be deprived of half its terrors; as far as my observation extends, it neither robs man of life, nor women of beauty.
On his return, he assisted Dr. Lovell in opening a hydropathic establishment at Barking, Essex; and, in 1848, he undertook the medical superintendence of the Grande Chartreuse in Piedmont. There he met Miss Anna Skelton, to whom he was married, at Nice, in 1849. Ultimately he made his home at St. Leonards, Sussex. The passage of the Compulsory Vaccination Act, in 1853, led him to publish a pamphlet, Our Medical Liberties, 1854, which excited the attention and won the approval of many thoughtful people. At the suggestion of Mr. Thomas Baker, he constructed a letter from the substance of the pamphlet, and addressed it to the President of the Board of Health, which, as we have seen, was issued as a parliamentary paper. The more vehement controversy which sprang up in recent years when the Vaccination Act was tightened, found Mr. Gibbs in health too feeble for active exertion. After his wife’s death, he retired to Jersey to be near his sister, Mrs. General Lane, in whose house he died in the winter of 1875.
FOOTNOTES:
[286] Compulsory Vaccination.—Copy of a Letter, dated 30th June, 1855, addressed to the President of the Board of Health by John Gibbs, Esquire, entitled, Compulsory Vaccination briefly considered in its Scientific, Religious, and Political Aspects. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 31st March, 1856.—Folio, pp. 31.
[287] Eruptive Fevers, pp. 5-8. London, 1843.