234 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



eye Avork in varous parts of the United States that trachoma l)e placed 

 in the list of excluded affections. This was done in 1897^ with the 

 result that a great many suffering with the disease were taken from 

 among the steerage immigrants and deported. It was then discov- 

 ered that ordinar}^ steerage aliens suffering from trachoma were being 

 transferred to the cabin, while en route, or after being refused passage 

 in the steerage at the port of departure, would be sold a cabin passage, 

 with the assurance that cabin passengers were not inspected at the port 

 of arrival. To check this practise and to make the inspection of aliens 

 complete, an inspection of cabin passengers was instituted in the fall 

 of 1898. The cabin inspection has been very successful in preventing 

 evasion of the law, but many steamship companies were still apparently 

 careless of the diseased condition of immigrants to whom they sold 

 tickets. By the last immigration law (1903) a penalty of $100 is 

 imposed upon the steamshij^ company for each diseased alien brought 

 to our ports, provided the disease evidently existed at the time of the 

 immigrant's taking passage and could have been detected by ordinary 

 medical skill. This penalty has had a salutary effect in causing the 

 steamship companies to institute a more rigid medical inspection at 

 the European ports of departure. Formerly the i)resence of a dis- 

 eased alien in the steerage was a matter of more or less indifference 

 to the steamship companies, as they could carry him back to Europe, 

 if deported, and still make a profit on the jjrice of his original passage. 



Two points al)out trachoma have occasioned considerable discussion. 

 These are its contagiousness and its likelihood of causing permanent 

 injury to sight. The contagiousness of trachoma is recognized and 

 conceded by those who have seen a sufficient number of cases of the 

 disease to form an accurate impression. Striking examples of its 

 contagious character can be seen any day on Ellis Island. The An- 

 nual Conference of State and Provincial Boards of Health, held at 

 New Haven, October, 1902, placed trachoma in the category of dis- 

 eases communicable and dangerous to the public health. 



Permanent injury to sight is most likely to occur in cases where 

 early treatment is neglected. Among immigrants with trachoma, 

 ignorance of personal hygiene and inability to secure proper treatment 

 make the spread of this disease alarming and the consequences to sight 

 disastrous. 



The area in Europe where trachoma is most prevalent extends from 

 the Gulf of 'Finland on the north to the Black Sea and the Mediter- 

 ranean on the south, and from Moscow and the A^olga on the east to 

 the Carpathian Mountains on the west. In addition, it is prevalent 

 in Greece and southern Italy, probably because of commercial inter- 

 course with Syria, Egypt and the Barbary States. The first-mentioned 

 area is occupied by Finns, Lithuanians, Eussians, Poles, Russian- 



