Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/371

Rh A period of fifteen days must elapse after the last possible exposure before release of suspects.

Leprosy is only mildly contagious, at least in this country, and is an instance of a disease made quarantinable more because of its loathsome nature and the abhorrence in which it is popularly held than because of actual infective danger from it. The immigration law absolutely excludes all alien lepers. Others must be removed from vessels at quarantine, and the quarters disinfected.

No small feature of the activity of the Public Health Service is its conduct of the medical examination of immigrants. No argument is necessary to convince every thoughtful patriot of the vital importance of this work. The immigration laws are explicit, and while the medical examiners have no authority to pass judgment on the admissibility of aliens, they have the basic function of supplying medical evidence against mental and physical defectives, which evidence under the law has a determining influence with the inspectors of the Immigration Bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor. The methods of medical inspection of incoming aliens and laws concerned, have been discussed and described by the author elsewhere, and will not be taken up here.

By far the largest port of entry for immigrants is through Ellis Island, N. Y. During the year ending June 30, 1911, 749,642 aliens were inspected there, as against a total of 303,007 for all other points of entry combined. At Ellis Island are stationed 23 medical officers,