IMMIGRATION AXD THE PUBLIC HEALTH 329 



the light of experience. In other words. Ellis Island is peculiarly 

 adapted to be an experimental station in the mental and physical exam- 

 ination of immigrants. There is a tremendous need for such a station. 

 The entire subject is new and, as has been pointed out, there is neither 

 precedent nor experience to guide. It is a sophistical and beclouding 

 argument that such work would be an injustice to the immigrant. In 

 the strictest sense it would be an intensive study of the immigrant 

 under the best possible surroundings to find out the best way of sepa- 

 rating the sound and desirable alien from the unsound and undesirable. 



Such work would find many definite problems in the diagnosis of 

 disease. An instance in point is trachoma. Probably no better tra- 

 choma clinic exists in the country than at the Ellis Island hospital. 

 So far the cause of the disease is unknown. Investigation of the etiol- 

 ogv would naturally carry with it investigation of the best means of 

 treatment and cure. Mention has been made of the importance of the 

 hookworm and of its prevalence in the United States. There is a 

 mighty host of intestinal parasites, several of which are fully as danger- 

 ous as the hookworm though not distributed so widely. An example 

 of this is the fishworm, the Bothriocephalus lotus. To exclude immi- 

 grants harboring these dangerous intestinal parasites or to cure them 

 before they enter the country is very important. 



Dr. M. TV. Glover has noted that of 1,553 immigrants examined at 

 San Francisco, 42.8 per cent, harbored the hookworm, not to mention 

 numerous other parasites. He found that 29.4 per cent, of the 782 

 Chinese examined were infected, and notes the fact that the most 

 marked evidences of infection were seen in Chinese boys. Dr. Glover 

 makes the interesting suggestion that this apparently explains the puz- 

 zling observation of the discrepancy between the apparent age and the 

 age claimed in many Chinese boys. In the fiscal year 1912, 911 cases 

 were certified at Ellis Island for lack of physical development, in addi- 

 tion to 411 cases for poor muscular development and 36 for malnutri- 

 tion. A large proportion of these cases were boys whose physical devel- 

 opment did not correspond to the age claimed. Dr. Friedman notes 

 such a disproportion as of common occurrence in the Mediterranean 

 races and especially in the Greeks. It would be well worth while to 

 institute an investigation to determine whether intestinal parasites or 

 some other agency is responsible for these cases. The determination of 

 this point would not only serve to clarify and give a more exact stand- 

 ard of diagnosis and certification of these aliens, but it would be of 

 untold value in relieving similar conditions not only among our own 

 people, but in the countries from which this class of immigrants come?. 



The detection and diagnosis of mental conditions in immigrants is 

 a matter of exceeding difficulty. This is in no small measure due to 



vol. txxxiir. — 23. 



