Page 71 - Summer 2019 Journal

All Thumbs Book Reviews
Horrors of Vaccination Exposed and Illustrated
By Charles Michael Higgins The De Vinne Press
Originally published in 1920, this book is thankfully available in various formats via Am- azon. At the time of this writing, you can find an original copy for three hundred forty-two dollars, the Kindle version for free and a few other imprints, such as Forgotten Books, sell- ing it in paperback for less than twenty dollars.
Higgins was a self-made American success story. He emigrated from Ireland to Brooklyn, New York, at the age of six, left school at age nine and became a self-taught draftsman. While employed at the Scientific News, he saw the need for a new type of ink and promptly invented one in his sister’s kitchen, leading to great commercial and professional success. Later on, he served on the boards of various organizations, was the treasurer of the Anti- Vaccination League of America and remained a well-respected member of his community of Park Slope, Brooklyn, where he raised his fam- ily and spent his entire life.
Higgins condemned the practice of compul- sory vaccination and wrote and disseminated many pamphlets on the subject, at his own ex- pense. His Horrors of Vaccination was written as an open letter to President Woodrow Wilson with the intent of convincing the president to abolish the practice of compulsory vaccination in the United States Army and Navy.
Higgins outlined many arguments as to why this practice should immediately cease. First, he showed that the smallpox vaccine was consistently the cause of more fatalities than natural smallpox. He also presented convincing evidence that the vaccine caused epidemics of not only smallpox but other dangerous diseases such as lockjaw (tetanus), meningitis, foot and mouth disease, pneumonia, septicemia and infantile paralysis. He even suggested that the practice of forced vaccination of military men
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could have been the cause of the great influenza epidemic of 1918.
As an addendum to this petition to the President, the book contains several case stud- ies compiled by a contemporary of Higgins who was motivated to research the dangers of vaccination after his only son died following vaccination at the age of eleven. Following these case studies are heart-wrenching letters addressed to Higgins from parents of children who died following vaccination. Most of the children had been vaccinated as a condition of school attendance.
Higgins spent tens of thousands of dollars on newspaper campaigns to get the word out about the dangers of compulsory vaccination, but, as he wrote, “the medical powers in the State, which profit by vaccination, had too much influence in the legislature.” He also made a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to add an amendment to the Constitution to make it illegal to force vaccination as a condition of education, and also sought to introduce laws that would compensate parents whose children were maimed or killed by vaccination.
Higgins spent a good number of pages eloquently discussing why the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence should protect us from compulsory vaccina- tion. In addition to these arguments, he plainly showed that vaccination, also termed “inocula- tion” in his day—and which he also referred to as “blood poisoning”—is a frequent cause of illness and death, and much more dangerous and deadly than the natural diseases, namely smallpox, that it purports to protect against.
If one hopes to have a clearer understand- ing of the history of vaccination in the era of smallpox, this book is highly recommended. Indeed, clear and convincing evidence of the dangers of vaccination has been around since the time of Jenner. And there have been a great many intelligent and courageous persons, like Higgins, who have made heroic efforts to make
Continued on page 70.
Higgins condemned the practice of compulsory vaccination and wrote and disseminated many pamphlets on the subject,
at his own expense.
Wise Traditions
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