matter how prevalent it may be, and regardless of the few cases that may be found among immigrants as compared with the huge number already existing, the exclusion of those few is a matter of deepest moment. It is extremely difficult to detect venereal disease in the routine examination of immigrants; even with the greatest possible vigilance, it is probable that many cases are not identified.
Acute diseases, including the ordinary contagious diseases, are stopped at the immigration station and kept in an isolation hospital until recovery has occurred. There is no serious danger from these because acute disease is easily recognized and ordinary quarantine precautions serve to prevent local epidemics.
Certain parasitic skin diseases such as favus and tinea tonsurans are excluded. These diseases are caused by a minute fungus which in itself is not dangerous to life or necessarily to health. But the lesions produced by these fungi are disfiguring and loathsome, and the disease is easily transmitted by contact, either directly from the patient or through the medium of domestic animals as cats and dogs, or of common hairbrushes, towels or linen. If the fungus invades the hair follicles and roots of the hairs, its eradication is a matter of the greatest difficulty and often impossible. It is this feature that makes favus and ringworm of the scalp practically incurable. The classification of loathsome and dangerous contagious diseases includes a large group, but the desirability of excluding immigrants possessing any of them rests on a few common principles. These diseases are all communicable and therefore may spread through an ever-widening circle. They are detrimental to the health and usually to the life and normal activity of the host. Occurring in the ordinary immigrant class, they decrease bis productivity and
