Editing Ellis Island (section)

====Medical inspection====
{{Multiple images
| total_width = 340
| perrow      = 2
| image1      = Physicians examining a group of Jewish immigrants (cropped).jpg
| caption1    = Physicians examining a group of Jewish immigrants, eye chart written in Hebrew hangs on wall (c. 1907)
| image2      = Immigrant children being examined by city health officer upon arrival at the battery from Ellis Island during Typhus Scare.jpg
| caption2    = Immigrant children being examined by city health officer upon arrival at the battery from Ellis Island during Typhus Scare
}}
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Climbing into the Promised Land Ellis Island - Lewis Wickes Hine.jpg|thumb|''"1905. Here is a Slavic group waiting to get through entrance gate. Many lines like these were prevalent in the early days. There was no room to keep personal belongings, so the immigrants had to carry their baggage with them all the time."'' (photo by [[Lewis Hine]])<ref name="captions">{{cite web |title=Legend from Hine's study |date=February 18, 2014 |url=https://www.messynessychic.com/2014/02/18/almost-in-america-portraits-from-ellis-island/ |access-date=February 3, 2023}}</ref>]]

Beginning in the 1890s, initial medical inspections were conducted by steamship companies at the European ports of embarkation; further examinations and vaccinations occurred on board ship during the voyage to New York.<ref name="gothamist20181128">{{Cite web |url=https://gothamist.com/2018/11/28/nyc_abandoned_island_history.php |title=Photos: The Strange History of NYC's Swinburne and Hoffman Islands |date=November 28, 2018 |website=Gothamist |access-date=June 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128172038/http://gothamist.com/2018/11/28/nyc_abandoned_island_history.php |archive-date=November 28, 2018 }}</ref> On arrival at the port of New York, ships halted at the New York state quarantine station near [[the Narrows]]. Those with serious contagious diseases (such as cholera and typhus) were quarantined at [[Hoffman Island]] or [[Swinburne Island]], two artificial islands off the shore of [[Staten Island]] to the south.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.silive.com/eastshore/2011/03/man-made_hoffman_island_just_o.html |title=Man-made Hoffman Island, just off South Beach, had many uses, among them a quarantine station for immigrants |last=N |first=Virginia |date=March 3, 2011 |website=silive.com |access-date=June 15, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1910/07/04/archives/new-state-hospital-on-hoffman-island-the-island-has-been-enlarged.html |title=New State Hospital On Hoffman Island; The Island Has Been Enlarged to Care for Contagious Disease Patients Entering the Port. |date=July 4, 1910 |work=The New York Times |access-date=June 15, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/05/21/quarantine-island/63e18826-bca5-4e1c-ad22-63996a34677b/ |title=Quarantine Island |last=Span |first=Paula |date=May 21, 2003 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=June 15, 2019}}</ref> The islands ceased to be used for quarantine by the 1920s due to the decline in inspections at Ellis Island.<ref name="gothamist20181128" /> For the vast majority of passengers, since most transatlantic ships could not dock at Ellis Island due to shallow water, the ships unloaded at Manhattan first, and steerage passengers were then taken to Ellis Island for processing. First- and second-class passengers, and American passengers of any class, typically bypassed the Ellis Island processing altogether.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-ellis-island |title=9 Things You May Not Know About Ellis Island |last=Andrews |first=Evan |website=History.com |date=February 7, 2019 |access-date=June 15, 2019}}</ref>

To support the activities of the United States Bureau of Immigration, the [[United States Public Health Service]] operated an extensive medical service. The medical force at Ellis Island started operating when the first immigration station opened in 1892, and was suspended when the station burned down in 1897.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Unrau|1984b|pp=576–579}}</ref> Between 1897 and 1902, medical inspections took place both at other facilities in New York City and on ships in the New York Harbor.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Unrau|1984b|pp=580–583}}</ref> A second hospital called U.S. Marine Hospital Number 43 or the [[Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital]] was built in 1902 and operated through 1930.<ref name="Forgotten" /><ref name="nyt19980322" /><ref name="Johnson 2007" /> Uniformed military surgeons staffed the medical division, which was active in the hospital wards, the Battery's Barge Office, and Ellis Island's Main Building.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Reed |first=Alfred C. |year=1913 |title=Going Through Ellis Island |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LK8VAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5 |journal=Popular Science Monthly and World's Advance |publisher=McClure, Phillips and Company |issue=v. 82 |page=11 |access-date=June 4, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Moreno (2004) pp. 142-144">{{harvnb|ps=.|Moreno|2004|pp=142–144}}</ref> Immigrants were brought to the island via barge from their transatlantic ships.<ref name="Mullan 1917 p. 733">{{cite journal |last=Mullan |first=E. H. |year=1917 |title=Mental Examination of Immigrants: Administration and Line Inspection at Ellis Island |journal=Public Health Reports |volume=32 |issue=20 |pages=733–746 |doi=10.2307/4574515 |issn=0094-6214 |jstor=4574515}}</ref><ref name="(AMA) pp. 235–241">{{cite journal |date=April 2008 |title=Medical Examination of Immigrants at Ellis Island |journal=Virtual Mentor |publisher=American Medical Association (AMA) |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=235–241 |doi=10.1001/virtualmentor.2008.10.4.mhst1-0804 |pmid=23206915 |issn=1937-7010 |last1=Bateman-House |first1=A. |last2=Fairchild |first2=A. |author-link2=Amy Fairchild|doi-access=free }}</ref>

A "line inspection" was conducted in the main building. In the line inspection, the immigrants were split into several single-file lines, and inspectors first checked for any visible physical disabilities.<ref name="Moreno (2004) pp. 142-144" /><ref name="(AMA) pp. 235–241" /><ref name="Unrau pp. 715-7192">{{harvnb|ps=.|Unrau|1984b|pp=715–719}}</ref> Each immigrant was inspected by two inspectors: one to catch any initial physical disabilities, and another to check for any other ailments that the first inspector did not notice.<ref name="Unrau pp. 715-7192" /> The doctors then observed immigrants as they walked, to determine any irregularities in their gait. Immigrants were asked to drop their baggage and walk up the stairs to the second floor.<ref name="Houghton2003">{{cite book |last=Houghton |first=Gillian |year=2003 |title=Ellis Island: A Primary Source History of an Immigrant's Arrival in America |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8239-4003-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/ellisislandprima0000houg |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="(AMA) pp. 235–241" /><ref name="Unrau pp. 715-7192" />

The line inspection at Ellis Island was unique because of the volume of people it processed, and as such, used several unconventional methods of medical examination.<ref name="Moreno (2004) pp. 142-144" /><ref name="Reed1912">{{cite magazine |last=Reed |first=Alfred C. |year=1912 |title=The Medical Side of Immigration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rCkKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA386 |publisher=McClure, Phillips and Company |volume=80 |access-date=June 4, 2019 |magazine=The Popular Science Monthly}}</ref> For example, after an initial check for physical disabilities, inspectors used special [[forceps]] or the [[wikt:buttonhook|buttonhook]] to examine immigrants for signs of eye diseases such as [[trachoma]].<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Moreno|2004|p=79}}</ref> Following each examination, inspectors used chalk to draw symbols on immigrants who were suspected to be sick.<ref name="Moreno (2004) pp. 33-34">{{harvnb|ps=.|Moreno|2004|pp=33–34}}</ref><ref name="Mullan 1917 p. 733" /><ref name="Reed1912" /> Some immigrants supposedly wiped the chalk marks off surreptitiously or inverted their clothes to avoid medical detention.<ref name="Houghton2003" /> Chalk-marked immigrants and those with suspected mental disabilities were then sent to rooms for further inspection, according to a 1917 account.<ref name="Mullan 1917 p. 733" />

The symbols used for chalk markings were:<ref name="Moreno (2004) pp. 33-34" /><ref name="Mullan 1917 p. 733" />
{{clear}}
{{div col|colwidth=20em|small=yes}}
* '''B''' – [[Back]]
* '''C''' – [[Conjunctivitis]]
* '''TC''' – [[Trachoma]]
* '''E''' – [[Human eye|Eyes]]
* '''F''' – Face
* '''FT''' – Feet
* '''G''' – [[Goiter]]
* '''H''' – [[Human heart|Heart]]
* '''K''' – [[Hernia]]
* '''L''' – [[Lameness]]
* '''N''' – [[Neck]]
* '''P''' – [[Physical examination|Physical]] and [[Lungs]]
* '''PG''' – Pregnancy
* '''S''' – [[Senility]]
* '''SC''' – [[Scalp]] ([[favus]])
* '''X''' – Suspected [[Mental disorder|mental defect]]
* '''ⓧ''' – Definite signs of mental defect
{{div col end}}