Trachoma

Public Health Service doctors at stations such as Ellis Island examined arrivals for loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases, which were grounds for exclusion. To check for trachoma they turned back the eyelids with their fingers or a buttonhook, a moment many immigrants remembered.

A suspected case led to a medical certificate and a special inquiry hearing, and the passenger list may carry medical notes or an In Hospital stamp. If the doctors judged the condition incurable, the immigrant was excluded and sent back.