The principal increase in the number of immigrants took place among Chinese, Japanese, and East Indians. By race the East Indians had the largest percentage of rejections, and they were almost all due to trachoma. The Indians, after gaining admission to the Philippines, generally depart for the United States soon afterwards. NEW YORK, N. Y. The work performed by medical officers detailed for immigration duty at New York may be classified in four divisions: (1) Cabin inspection. Officers engaged exclusively in the medical inspection of cabin passengers board incoming ships at quarantine and the inspection is conducted while the ship is proceeding to the dock. This work is of an especially delicate nature because of the indisposition of the steamship companies to cause any seeming annoyance to saloon passengers, the difficulty in segregating aliens from the large number of citizens in the first cabin and the confusion incident to approaching debarkation. These problems are gradually being solved, and in the meantime medical officers have been instructed that the segregation of aliens in the cabin is a function of the immigration authorities upon whom they must necessarily depend for the presentation of such aliens for medical inspection. (2) Line inspection. The inspection of aliens from the steerage is conducted at Ellis Island and this includes the bulk of the work of medical inspection. One This division embraces the primary line inspection, the secondary examination of those set aside for further physical or mental examination, the designation of cases to be sent to the hospital, reexamination of cases certified and subsequently appealed, and examination of cases in public institutions at the request of the commissioner of immigration. Three daily visits are also made to the detention rooms for the detection of cases of illness and sanitary reports are made to the commissioner when requested. Examination of aliens suspected to be idiots, imbeciles, or feeble-minded is a most important phase of this work, to which an increasing degree of attention is being paid and which has undergone a marked development during the year. hundred and thirty-two persons of this type were certified during the fiscal year 1912; 520 certificates of this type were issued during the past year. The increase in the percentage of aliens certified for such defects is due to increased experience, improved methods of examination, and the painstaking work in this field which has been done by the officers engaged in it. It is hoped that larger opportunity may be had during the coming year for the prosecution of the original work already tentatively begun. To extend this work and insure rapidity and accuracy in its execution a larger medical force will be required as well as the employment of interpreters for exclusive duty in connection with the medical inspection. (3) Immigrant Hospital (General). In addition to the varied activities of a general hospital, many aliens are sent to this institution for observation of conditions involving medical certificates. All cases of suspected trachoma and suspected insanity, for instance, are admitted to hospital for diagnosis. A considerable number of suspected feeble-minded are also handled in hospital. These special duties, which are quite apart from the ordinary routine of a hospital, involve much time and labor and a larger staff is desirable. (4) Immigrant Hospital (contagious disease).-Infectious cases developing among aliens on shipboard or at Ellis Island are admitted. The majority of patients are children suffering from measles, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. The death rate is materially influenced by the reception of a considerable number of moribund patients and those suffering from more than one infectious disease. On account of the increasing number of patients handled and the congestion in the wards at certain seasons a larger staff-especially a larger nursing staff is needed. In this connection it may be stated that the sick are brought to Ellis Island from the ships on barges, along with the steerage passengers, and it has been the practice to place all patients, irrespective of the nature of the disease, in a single room on these vessels. This abuse, which accounts for at least some of the multiple infections treated in hospital, has been brought to the attention of the commissioner of immigration, who has made vigorous representations to the steamship companies and a betterment of these conditions is in sight. During the year passengers arrived at New York from foreign ports as follows: Twenty-two thousand seven hundred and thirty-three aliens were certified for physical or mental defects. The certificates are classified as follows: Class A (I), including 8 idiots, 48 imbeciles, 464 feeble-minded, 8 epileptics, Class A (II) (dangerous contagious and loathsome contagious diseases). Class C (diseases or defects of less degree)... Class A (I): Disposition of immigrants certified. Cases pending at beginning of year. 699 1, 176 15, 287 5, 571 20 699 719 624 57 38 31 1, 176 1, 207 1,098 62 47 In the two immigrant hospitals there were treated during the year, 10,381. Immigrant hospital (general): Remaining at beginning of year.. Admitted during year, including 29 born in hospital. 162 8,849 9, 011 8, 736 97 178 54 1, 316 1,370 1, 062 180 128 Fifty-nine aliens, requiring immediate attention, were removed upon arrival and cared for by the steamship companies in various hospitals. Upon the request of the commissioner of immigration medical officers visited 149 aliens who had become public charges or inmates of various institutions in New York and the vicinity and examined them to determine the nature of the disease or defect and to ascertain whether due to causes existing prior to landing. Summary of hospital transactions at Ellis Island. Patients admitted to hospital during year.. Number of patients in hospital at beginning of year. 216 10, 165 Births (male 15, female 14).. Total treated (men 5,420, women 2,431, male children 1,306, female 10, 381 29 Deaths (men 28, women 16, male children 115, female children 118). Pay patients treated during the year. Free patients treated during the year. 277 9, 921 460 Days treatment for pay patients. Immigrant hospital: From previous year.. Days treatment for free patients.. Total days treatment for hospital cases. Maximum number of patients in hospital at any one time during year. Daily average number of patients in hospital. Patients in hospital at end of year..... 79, 797 3, 919 83, 716 397 229 306 Admitted during year. Total treated.. Recovered. 216 10, 165 10, 381 5, 302 1,989 2,507 277 306 83, 716 The number of aliens arriving at the port of Philadelphia, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, was the largest in the history of that port. The total number arriving was 64,666 and of this number, 2,359 were certified on account of disease or defect, physical or mental. The new immigration detention house at Gloucester City, N. J., was opened for the reception of detained aliens on the 19th of August, 1912, and from then on, the medical officers of the Public Health Service have had charge of the sick and injured among the detained aliens, in addition to the medical inspection of arriving aliens. 20139°-14-11 Diseases and injuries treated at immigration detention house Gloucester, N. J. Acute inflammation left ovary. 1 Malarial fever.. 3 Measles.. 53 At the port of Quebec, during the fiscal year (from July 1, 1912, to November 20, 1912, and April 27, 1913, to June 30, 1913) 252 ships, an increase of 21 ships as compared with the preceding year, landed 22,196 passengers, destined to the United States, an increase of 5,229 passengers; also, 7,835 passengers in transit through the United States to Canada via the Grand Trunk Railway system. The 22,196 passengers arriving subject to inspection by the medical officer of the service, were divided as to citizenship and classification on shipboard as follows: There were 90 records of minor defects, regarded as of little practical importance as to self-maintenance, and 215 certificates issued for physical or mental defects, which were likely to affect the alien's ability to earn a living. The port of Quebec was closed as usual the latter part of November and the medical officer was detailed to St. John, New Brunswick, where the inspection of immigrants for the winter season is conducted. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, the total number of immigrants inspected by the medical officers of the Angel Island (San Francisco) Immigration Station was 13,893, an increase of slightly more than 3,000 over the number inspected during the preceding year, and of this number 1,888, or more than 300 more than during the preceding year, were certified as presenting one of the various conditions of which notice must be taken under the immigration law. |