Dr. Sargent then goes on to say, “The principal characteristics of general form that distinguish civilized women from men are smaller muscles, sloping shoulders, broader hips, and shorter legs. The smaller muscles and the shorter legs may be said to be embryonic, while the superior breadth of the hips indicates a greater evolutionary advancement in this part of the body than has taken place in man. The constricted waist must be regarded as a deformity artificially produced. When the hips are large in the male or female, the waist will naturally be larger if the muscles which connect the trunk with the pelvis have nothing to constrict them. Since the hips of women are much wider than those of men, we should expect to find the waist proportionately larger in women than in men. In close antithesis to these observations of Dr. Sargent’s on the physical inferiority of American women to men, it is both interesting and instructive to note those of Dr. Hancock in his work on “Physical Training for Women by Japanese Methods.” =The Physical Training of the Japanese Women.=—A Japanese woman is usually the peer of a man of her own race who is of the same age and height, especially when weights are about equal. This is due to the fact that the Japanese women exercise in much the same way that the men do, and devote fully as much time in the endeavor to gain strength. In the Japanese system of bodily training, known as jiu-jitsu, it is considered advisable in the initial stages to have boy and girl contestants as nearly equal in age and height as possible. The girls enter the arena upon equal terms with the boys, and have proved their fitness to do so. Grown men and women practise together; other conditions being equal, the women show an equal amount of strength with the men. The back of the average Anglo-Saxon woman is generally the weakest part of her body, while the normal Japanese woman satisfies the artist’s ideals as well as the surgeon’s. The average Japanese woman of to-day shows a figure as perfectly molded, and of as true proportions, as the women of ancient Greece were able to display. First of all, the Japanese women are taught that life is impossible without a sufficient supply of fresh air. This internal cleansing with air is deemed of more importance than the bath which follows soon after. That the Japanese woman is a deep breather is shown by the firm muscles that stand out on the abdomen. Consumption is a rare disease in Japan; even winter coughs are of rare occurrence. The Japanese look upon full, deep breathing as being the most vital function in life; food is not so important, although it is necessary. The best exercises are of little importance when the breathing which accompanies them is not properly done.