GOING THROUGH ELLIS ISLAND n 



Department of Commerce and Labor, while the Public Health Service is 

 under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. 



There are 82 immigration stations embracing the entire coastline 

 and frontiers of the United States as well as the entry of aliens into 

 the Philippines, Porto Eico and Hawaii. During the fiscal year of 

 1911, the total number of immigrants examined was 1,093,809. Of 

 these 27,412 were certified for some mental or physical defect. By far 

 the most important point of entry is Ellis Island, where 749,642 aliens 

 were examined. Nearly 17,000 medical certificates were issued here, 

 and more than 5,000 of these were deported. 



The Ellis Island station of the Public Health Service has 25 med- 

 ical officers attached, including 6 specially trained in the diagnosis and 

 observation of mental disorders. Their work is divided into three sec- 

 tions, the boarding division, the hospital and the line. The boarding 

 division has its offices at Battery Park, N. Y. By means of a fast and 

 powerful cutter, The Immigrant, these men meet all incoming liners 

 as they leave the New York Quarantine Station and start up the bay. 

 Their inspection is limited to aliens in the first and second cabins. 

 Such as require a more careful and detailed examination are sent to 

 Ellis Island. The others are discharged at the dock, after having 

 passed the additional inspection of the Department of Commerce and 

 Labor. At the dock, all third and fourth class aliens are transferred to 

 barges, carrying about 700 each, and taken to Ellis Island. 



Ellis Island lies close to the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island, 

 about a mile from Battery Park. It is the most commanding location 

 in New York Harbor. It consists of one small natural island and two 

 additional artificial ones, connected with the first by a covered passage- 

 way across the intervening strip of water. On the first island is the 

 main immigration station. The other two are occupied by the hos- 

 pital division of the medical service. On one of these is the general 

 hospital and on the further one the contagious hospital, consisting of 

 separate pavilions, connected with open covered passageways. Each 

 hospital can accommodate close to 200 patients at once, and is usually 

 fairly full. The service is limited strictly to aliens, and the expense of 

 each immigrant receiving hospital care is charged to the steamship 

 company which brought him. This hospital is excellently conducted 

 and every method of most approved diagnostic, surgical and medical 

 technique is practised. A rare variety of diseases is seen. Patients 

 literally from the farthest corners of the earth come together here. 

 Pare tropical diseases, unusual internal disorders, strange skin lesions, 

 as well as the more frequent cases of a busy general city hospital pre- 

 sent themselves. The variety of contagious diseases is unusual and ex- 

 treme diagnostic skill is required of the physicians in charge. In the 

 fiscal year 1911, over 6,000 cases were treated in the hospital, exclusive 



