Medical Exams...
The Physician's Perspective |
While the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island saw themselves as passing through a gate—a boundary or border—diseases have never made this type of distinction. Between 1880 and 1920, when immigration through Ellis Island reached its highest levels, trachoma, cholera, smallpox, syphilis, favus, diphtheria, typhoid, typhus and tuberculosis caused the most fear, and the American government was prepared to take aggressive steps to prevent the introduction of these and other diseases.
Many immigrants underwent a medical exam before boarding a ship for America. Reflecting the prejudices—and reality—of the day, many PHS officers believed that these exams were done poorly. Foreign medicals officials were susceptible to bribery from passengers in third and fourth class and basic standards of cleanliness were not always employed by physicians working abroad. In 1906, for example, a physician noted with disgust that in Hamburg, immigrants “were examined with the soiled fingers of a physician [who]...was not provided with any means of cleaning his hands.”
When conducting their own medical exams, the PHS followed slightly stricter guidelines, wiping their instruments and hands on a Lysol-impregnated rag between patients to prevent the spread of diseases.
PHS officers examined immigrants with an eye to three things: an infectious disease, a chronic disease or an obvious handicap which would prevent the immigrant from working. |
The Patient's Perspective |
If you were an immigrant who stood in the line to be examined by a PHS physician, the physician looked for evidence of three primary things: an infectious disease, a chronic disease or a handicap. The PHS physician would have begun examining you for these defects before you were even aware of it.
 After disembarking from the ship, you would have been told to carry your bags into the main building and up a flight of stairs. If you had gasped or been short of breath, you would have been pulled aside and examined for evidence of heart disease or lung problems.
As you struggled across the long hall with your suitcase, a physician would have watched you to detect abnormalities in your posture or walk. And when you approached the physician, he would have carefully examined your face and neck for evidence of a goiter.
Then, your vision would be tested and a stethoscope would be used to determine irregularities in your heart which might not have been evident in your walk up the stairs. Your skin and scalp would be examined, quickly and in a cursory fashion, for evidence of a fungal infection. The physician then would take out a button hook, an instrument normally used for buttoning shoes, to invert your eyelids and check for signs of trachoma.
Had you hesitated or behaved oddly during the exam, the physician would have pulled you out of the line to ascertain whether you had a mental disability. |
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