The writer Angelo Pelligrini has recalled his own family’s detention at Ellis Island: “We lived there for three days—Mother and we five children, the youngest of whom was three years old. Because of the rigorous physical examination that we had to submit to, particularly of the eyes, there was this terrible anxiety that one of us might be rejected. And if one of us was, what would the rest of the family do?” —Immigrant Kids,
Russell Freedman

Why does Pelligrini’s quotation give credibility to Freedman’s idea that the doctors at Ellis Island were greatly feared?