Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/282

 —The tariff was fixed originally on a basis of ten per cent duty on imports, but in 1865 Japan consented, under heavy pressure and even armed menace, to reduce the rate to five per cent. This, too, was only nominal, for the conversion of ad valerem duties into specific was managed in such a manner that the sum actually levied on imports did not average as much as two and a half per cent of their value at the port of shipment.  —This idea was founded partly on the inferior stature and weight of the Japanese. The average height of the adult male Japanese, according to Dr., the best authority on the ethnography of Japan, is 5 ft. $2 1/2$ in., and that of the adult female, 4 ft. $8 1/3$ in. Thus the male in Japan is about as tall as the female in Europe. The weight of the male is 150 lbs. in the lower orders, and from 140 to 145 lbs. in the upper (against an average weight of 188 lbs. in Europe); the woman weighs from 122 to 125 lbs. It will be convenient to set down here some salient facts as to the physical structure and properties of the people, following always the authority of Dr. Baelz. The Japanese grows only eight percent of his stature from the time of puberty, whereas the European grows thirteen per cent. The bulk of the people are strong. The upper classes are comparatively weakly, but the lower are robust and muscular. In the matter of weight, as well as in that of height, development ceases sooner in the Japanese than in the European. The head is large, the face and torso are long, the legs short. Indeed, the length of the torso and the shortness of the legs are so marked as to constitute a race characteristic. In a European the length of the leg from the trochanter to the ground is more than one-half of the length of the body; in the Japanese it is distinctly less. The face, in consequence of the low bridge of the nose, is less prominent than that of the European, and appears to be broader, but is not really so. The forehead is low; the vertical distance between the tip of the nose and the upper lip, very small. The mouth is sometimes small and shapely, but frequently it is large and the teeth are prognathous. The eye is always dark, generally of a fine brown. It seems to be oblique, but the obliquity is due to the position of the lids. Further, the upper lid is 