101 
1880.J The Height and Span of the Japanese . 
published* the results of nearly three hundred observations 
of the height and span of the Japanese. She found the 
average height to be 5 feet 3 inches, and their span 4 feet 
11 inches. In the case of twenty-four women, taken at 
random, the tallest was a trifle over 5 feet 2 inches, and the 
average was 4 feet 8 inches, with an average span of 4 feet 
6 inches. The shortness of the span as compared with the 
height is a general characteristic that is especially marked 
in the case of the women. This gives rise to the theory 
whether the habit of raising the shoulder-pole for carrying 
burdens, and the universal practice of tying the infant to the 
back, may not — by making the arms unused to great mus- 
cular exertion— arrest, in a measure, their development. 
From the tables of height given the Japanese appear to 
be not only much smaller than the western nations, but also 
less variable in height. This may possibly be due to a less 
great mixture of races than now exists in Europe. During 
four years Mrs. Ayrton appears to have only seen one J apanese 
who struck her as exceptionally tall, a circumstance that in 
any European capital could not have failed to happen more 
frequently. Taking the percentage of the observations, 
60 per cent of the Japanese observed had the span shorter 
than their height, 33 per cent had the span greater than their 
height, whilst in only 6*8 per cent was the ideal of proportion 
realised, namely, that the height and span shall be equal. 
It is to be regretted that the more complex measurements 
of the head, &c., were not taken, but possibly the docility of 
the subjects experimented upon would not have admitted 01 
very detailed examination, as it seems the Japanese have a 
strong superstitious dislike to be measured, and even object 
frequently, on the same grounds, to be photographed. 
In seeking the explanation of the smallness of the Japanese 
it is proverbially known that climate is often called to ac- 
count. Doubtless climate has much to do with the stunted 
growth of Laplanders and Esquimaux, but Japan occupies a 
temperate zone. Granted, however, that the climate of 
fapan is magnificent, still the seasons are more marked and 
the variations of temperature more sudden than with us, and 
the question arises whether the sudden demands made upon 
the organism to accommodate itself to such variable atmo- 
spheric conditions may not be unfavorable to harmoniously 
continuous growth. The clothing of a nation illustrates very 
* “Recherches sur les Dimensions Generates et sur le Developpment du 
corns chez les Japonais.”— Thesis for the degree of Dodor of Medicine pre- 
sented and sustained by Mrs. Chaplin Ayrton before the Faculty of Medicine 
of Paris, 
