Hugh Smith Cumming (1869-1948) was an American physician and the fifth Surgeon General of the United States from 1920 to 1936. In 1925, Cumming inaugurated a plan for the medical inspection of immigrants abroad in the principal countries of origin. This plan reduced the number of immigrants who were turned back for medical reasons after making the trip to the United States. Cumming also expanded the research activities of the Hygienic Laboratory, which in 1930 became the National Institute of Health.