528 Royal Society. 



very slight difference only can be traced from that of the European ; 

 but there is absolutely no difference whatsoever in its internal struc- 

 ture, nor does the Negro brain exhibit any greater resemblance to 

 that of the ourang-outang than the brain of the European, excepting, 

 perhaps, in the more symmetrical disposition of its convolutions. 



Many of the results which the author has thus deduced from his re- 

 searches are at variance with the received opinions relative to the 

 presumed inferiority of the Negro structure, both in the conformation 

 and in the relative dimensions of the brain ; and he ascribes the erro- 

 neous notions which have been hitherto entertained on these subjects 

 chiefly to prejudice created by the circumstance that the facial angle 

 in the negro is smaller than in the European, and consequently makes, 

 in this respect, an approach to that of the ape, in which it is still farther 

 diminished. The author denies that there is any innate difference 

 in the intellectual faculties of these two varieties of the human race ; 

 and maintains that the apparent inferiority of the Negro is altogether 

 the result of the demoralizing influence of slavery, and of the long- 

 continued oppression and cruelty which have been exercised towards 

 this unhappy portion of mankind by their more early civilized, and con- 

 sequently more successful competitors for the dominion of the world. 



June 16. — The following papers were read, viz. 



1. " Researches on the Tides j Sixth Series. On the Results of 

 an extensive system of Tide Observations, made on the Coasts of 

 Europe and America, in June 1835." By the Rev. William Whewell, 

 F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 



The author having, in several previous communications to the Royal 

 Society, urged the importance of simultaneous tide observations made 

 at distant places, here gives an account of the steps taken to carry 

 this plan into effect, in consequence of his representations, both by 

 the Government in England, and by the other maritime powers of 

 Europe. He explains, in the present paper, the general character of 

 the observations thus obtained, the mode employed in reducing them, 

 and enters at considerable length into a discussion of the immense 

 mass of information which they supply with respect to the phienornena 

 of the tides. One of his principal objects was to fix with precision 

 the form of the Cotidal lines by which the motion of the tide wave is 

 exhibited. He devotes one section of the paper to an investigation 

 of the general form of these lines; and another to a nearer approxima- 

 tion to an accurate map of these lines, more especially as they exist 

 in the German Ocean. Tiie 4th section treats of the height of the 

 tide in its total range from high to low water ; the 5th relates to the 

 diurnal inequality; the 6th to the semimenstrual inequality; and the 

 7th and last comprises general remarks on the tables which accom- 

 pany the paper. 



2. "On the Tides at the Port of London." By J. W. Lubbock, Esq., 



F.R.S. 



The discussions of tide observations which the author has hitherto 

 at various times laid before the Society, were instituted with reference 

 to the transit of the Moon immediately preceding the time of high- 

 water 5 from which the laws of the variation in the interval between 



