LITERARY NOTICES. 



275 



Professor Sidgwick, Professor Balfour Stew- 

 art, William Crookes, and Alfred K. Wallace. 

 They made a considerable number of ex- 

 periments, in which phenomena were de- 

 veloped that are not yet fully accounted for. 

 From the reports on these experiments made 

 by the several committees to whom the su- 

 pervision of them was intrusted, Mr. Hovey 

 has prepared the present interesting and sug- 

 gestive volume. 



The Patriarchal Theory, based on the 

 Papers of the late John Ferguson Mc- 

 Lennan. Edited and completed by Don- 

 ald McLennan. London: Macmillan & 

 Co. Pp. 355. Price, $4. 

 Mr. McLennan, in his book on " Primi- 

 tive Marriage," and in an essay which he 

 published about fifteen years ago, on " The 

 Worship of Animals and Plants," propound- 

 ed some original and striking views, and 

 opened up new lines of inquiry into the ori- 

 gins and conditions of primitive society. 

 He was making the investigations of which 

 these publications were the first fruits, his 

 life-work, when his career was cut short, be- 

 fore he was able to perfect anything further, 

 by sickness and death ; but not till he had 

 seen his views received respectfully, con- 

 firmed in his own mind by new facts and 

 circumstances, and made a part of the light 

 under which the continued study of an- 

 thropology would be conducted. It was his 

 purpose, if health and strength had been 

 given him, to undertake a general work on 

 the structure of the earliest human socie- 

 ties. " In particular," says his brother, " he 

 felt that he was able to give a much more 

 consistent and intelligible view of the con- 

 dition of rude or undeveloped communities 

 than anything that had previously been of- 

 fered to the public." His research being of 

 a very extensive and far-reaching kind, and 

 involving the use of " a very large apparatus 

 of evidence," he proposed " to prepare the 

 way for his larger work by first issuing a 

 critical essay, by which he hoped to clear 

 out of the way a body of opinion, the prev- 

 alence of which seemed to oppose an ob- 

 stacle to the proper appreciation of his con- 

 structive argument." This " body of opin- 

 ion" was represented by the theory that 

 the family living under the headship of the 

 father was the ultimate social unit, which 

 while it is very old, had recently taken its 



most important and influential shape in the 

 works of Sir Henry Maine. This " critical 

 essay" he had on hand, assisted by his 

 brother, who now completes it, and had 

 carried out to seven of the nineteen chap- 

 ters of the present volume, with notes em- 

 bodying his views as to other parts of the 

 work, when he died. The work is neces- 

 sarily, by the circumstances of the case, 

 somewhat polemical in form, but not wholly 

 so, for the latter part of it is largely de- 

 voted to the buildng up of a theory of the 

 origin of agnation, in the course of which 

 it became necessary to go into the whole 

 question of the Levirate and of the family 

 custom of the Hindoos. " It has appeared 

 at all points," says the editor, " not only that 

 the phenomena dealt with are not intelligi- 

 ble on the patriarchal theory, but that they 

 carry us back to a stage of society prior to 

 the form of the family which has a father 

 at its head, to the stage of polyandry, and to 

 the form of the family founded upon kin- 

 ship through women only. The argument 

 has been throughout constructive as well as 

 critical, and no slight part of the work is 

 purely constructive." 



Cnited States Commission of Fish and Fish- 

 eries. Report of the Commissioner for 

 1882. Washington : Government Print- 

 ing-Office. Pp. 1,101, with Plates. 

 The commission having completed the 

 tenth year of its work, the report takes 

 general notice of what it has accomplished. 

 It was formed primarily to investigate the 

 alleged decrease of food-fishes in the United 

 States, but had added to its duties in its 

 second year that of promoting the propaga- 

 tion of fish. It has accomplished much for 

 science by prosecuting, or aiding others to 

 prosecute, researches into the general natu- 

 ral history of marine animals and plants. 

 It has made very large collections of aquatic 

 animals in aid of monographic research, 

 and has given a full series to the National 

 Museum, and sets to several hundred insti- 

 tutions of learning, etc. During 1882 it 

 secured a permanent sea-coast station at 

 Wood's Holl; fitted up the Armory Build- 

 ing as its central Washington station ; ac- 

 quired stations in Maryland and Virginia ; 

 furthered the artificial production of oysters, 

 and the production and distribution of the 

 carp ; and made inquiries into the extensive 



