IMMIGRATION AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH 333 



the medical examination must be 

 conducted on board shir) are most 

 disconcerting and difficult for the 

 medical officer. The law regards 

 all aliens alike, and the regula- 

 tions governing the medical exam- 

 ination of aliens expressly make no 

 distinction between those in the 

 cabin and in the steerage. As a 

 matter of fact, the chances of a 

 defective immigrant escaping de- 

 tection in the cabin are far greater 

 than in the steerage. This depends 

 on many factors of which space 

 forbids more than mention. The 

 aliens of the first cabin are fre- 

 quently discharged without exam- 



ROUMANIAN. 



Slovak. 



ination by the medical officer. In 

 the confusion and excitement on 

 board an arriving liner not infre- 

 quently defective aliens as well as 

 others are passed with no medical 

 examination. 



It is not true that immigrants 

 come only in the steerage. On 

 many lines the second and even 

 the first cabin brings a class of 

 alien passengers distinctly inferior 

 to the steerage of such lines as the 

 Scandinavian and Scotch. In his 

 report for 1911 of the medical 

 examination of aliens at Boston, 

 Dr. M. V. Safford says : 



Six per cent, of the steerage 

 passengers arriving at Boston were 

 United States citizens, and over three 

 fourths of the second cabin passengers 

 were aliens. About 25 per cent, of 

 the aliens arriving at Boston come as " 

 cabin passengers. It appears that 

 over 7 per cent, of the alien second 

 cabin passengers were certified as 



