358 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



insane or supported by charity; whether a polygamist; whether an anarchist; 

 whether coming by reason of any offer, solicitation, promise or agreement, ex- 

 pressed or implied, to perform labor in the United States, and what is the 

 alien's condition of health, mental and physical, and whether deformed or 

 crippled, and if so, for how long and from what cause. 



The master or first officer and the ship's surgeon are required by 

 the same law to make oath before an immigration officer at the port 

 of arrival that the lists manifests are to the best of their knowledge 

 and belief true, and that none of the aliens belongs to any of the ex- 

 cluded classes. Each alien is furnished with a card, with his name, 

 the number of the list on which his name appears and his number on 

 that list. The cards of minor children are given to the head of the 

 family. These cards are valuable and necessary for identification, and 

 facilitate inspection at the port of arrival. 



The condition of the steerage quarters of a modern steamship de- 

 pends largely upon the age of the ship and the degree of overcrowding. 

 The steerage of a first-class ship of recent construction will afford 

 accommodations equal to those accorded second cabin passengers on 

 less progressive lines. First-class lines are careful also to prevent 

 overcrowding. On some of the smaller and older ships the accommo- 

 dations are limited, and overcrowding is permitted. But it is safe to 

 say that the worst steerage accommodations to be found on any ship 

 entering New York harbor to-day are infinitely better than the best 

 afforded by the sailing vessels or old ' side wheelers ' of the past. 



On entering New York harbor the ocean liners are boarded by the 

 state quarantine authorities, and the immigrants inspected for quaran- 

 tinable disease, such as cholera, small-pox, typhus fever, yellow fever 

 or plague. Then the immigrant inspectors and a medical officer of 

 the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service board the vessel and 

 examine the cabin passengers, paying particular attention to the sec- 

 ond cabin. This cabin inspection is very necessary, and, before its 

 institution, the second class cabin was the route most often employed 

 by persons who found it necessary to evade the law. After the com- 

 pletion of the cabin inspection the ship's surgeon reports any cases of 

 sickness among the aliens in the ship's hospital. The medical inspector 

 examines these cases and later arranges for their transfer, if deemed 

 advisable, from the ship to the immigrant hospital. The immigrants 

 are then taken from the ship upon barges to the immigrant station, 

 Ellis Island. 



The medical examination at Ellis Island is conducted according to 

 a system which is the result of many years of development. The doc- 

 tors work in pairs, and divide the inspection between them. The im- 

 migrants, coming in single file, are examined for certain defects by 

 the first doctor, who detains each one long enough to keep a space of 



