research, and has recently received some support from Professor Robertson Smith's investigations into primitive Arabian institutions (see Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, Cambridge, 1885, 8vo).
Want of leisure combined with ill-health to frustrate McLennan's long-cherished intention of rewriting 'Primitive Marriage.' He continued, however, his investigations into the subject until shortly before his death. In 1866 he discussed the Homeric evidence in two articles on 'Kinship in Ancient Greece' in the 'Fortnightly Review' (April and May), and contributed a slighter paper on 'Bride Catching' to the 'Argosy' (June). He broke entirely new ground in a brief article on 'Totemism' in the supplement to 'Chambers's Encyclopaedia' (1868}, followed by a series on the same subject, entitled 'The Worship of Animals and Plants,' in the 'Fortnightly Review' for October and November 1869 and February 1870. Under the title 'Studies in Ancient History' he issued in 1876 a reprint of 'Primitive Marriage,' and the essays on 'Kinship in Ancient Greece,' with some new matter, viz. an examination of the American ethnologist Morgan's theory of 'The Classificatory System of Relationships;' a brief paper on Bachofen's ' Mutterrecht,' another on Sir John Lubbock's hypothesis of 'Communal Marriage,' and an elaborate essay on the 'Divisions of the Ancient Irish Family.' To the 'Fortnightly Review' he contributed in May 1877 an article on 'The Levirate and Polyandry,' an attempt to deduce the former institution from the latter, which provoked a reply from Mr. Herbert Spencer, and another on 'Exogamy and Endogamy ' in the following June.
To clear the way for a comprehensive work which he projected on the evolution of the idea of kinship, McLennan began in 1880, but did not live to complete, a critical examination of Sir Henry Maine's patriarchal theory, with the view of proving it to be an historical anachronism. His health, however, was already thoroughly undermined by consumption, and while wintering in Algeria he suffered from repeated attacks of malarial fever. He returned to England in the spring of 1881, and died, after some months of complete prostration, at his house, Hawthorndene, Hayes Common, Kent, on 16 June.
McLennan received from the university of Aberdeen the degree of LL.D. in 1874. He married twice: (1) on 23 Dec. 1862, Mary Bell, daughter of John Ramsay McCulloch [q. v.], by whom he had one child, a daughter, still living; (2) on 20 Jan. 1875, Eleonora Anne, daughter of Mr. Francis Holles Brandram, J.P. for the counties of Kent and Sussex, who survives him.
The fragment on the patriarchal theory, edited and completed by McLennan's brother Donald, who had helped in its composition, was published in 1885, under the title 'The Patriarchal Theory, based on the Papers of the late John Ferguson McLennan,' London, 8vo. Maine's death in 1888 relieved him from the obligation of answering its very acute and trenchant criticism. For the projected work on kinship McLennan left considerable materials, the arrangement of which, begun by Donald McLennan, but interrupted by his death in 1891, has since been continued by Professor Robertson Smith, and carried far towards completion. A reprint of 'Studies in Ancient History,' with notes by David McLennan, appeared in 1886, London, 8vo.
Besides his extremely original and suggestive work in sociology, McLennan published in 1867 an excellent 'Memoir of Thomas Drummond, R.E., F.R.A.S., Under-Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1836 to 1840,' Edinburgh, 8vo [see Drummond, Thomas, 1797–1840].
[Scotsman, 20 June 1881; Athenæum, 25 June 1881, 30 May 1885; Academy, xx. 10; Cambr. Univ. Cal. 1853; The Patriarchal Theory, Pref.;. Encycl. Brit. 9th edit. 'McLennan; ' private information. For criticisms of McLennan's sociological theories see Maine's Dissertations on Early Law and Custom, pp. 221 et seq.; Lubbock's Origin of Civilisation, 5th edit pp. 102 et seq.; L. H. Morgan's Ancient Society, pp. 500 et seq.; Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology, pp. 641 et seq.; Letourneau's L'Évolution du Mariage et de la Famille, ch. vi.; Westermarck's Origin of Human Marriage, ch. vi. vii.; Starcke's Primitive Family (International Scientific Series).]
MACLEOD, ALEXANDER, D.D. (1817–1891), presbyterian divine, born at Nairn on 17 Oct. 1817, was brought up chiefly in Glasgow, where he was connected with the Carlton Relief Church, then under the ministry of the Rev. Alexander Harvey. He entered Glasgow University in 1835, attended the Relief Theological Hall from 1839 to 1844, and after being licensed was ordained at Strathaven, Lanarkshire, on 20 Feb. 1844. He was translated to the John Street Church, Glasgow, on 11 Oct. 1866, to be colleague and successor to the eccentric Dr. William Anderson (1799–1873) [q. v.] On 17 March 1864 he was inducted the first pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Claughton, Birkenhead, and remained there till his death. He received the degree of D.D. from the uni-
