1885.] Scientific News. 109 
lessons in elementary mineralogy, to be given in the laboratory of 
the institute by Professor W. O. Crosby and Mrs. Ellen H. Rich- 
ards. The class is limited to fifty teachers, one to be nominated 
by each of the masters of the Boston grammar schools. 
— The Biological School of the University of Pennsylvania 
was opened on Nov. 3d. Professor Harrison Allen delivered the 
opening address. He outlined the objects of the school in a mas- 
terly manner, pointing out that original research is its leading aim. 
It is to be hoped that Professor Allen’s views as to its conduct 
will be carried into effect, otherwise it will become a school of in- 
struction only, and as such an unnecessary addition to the gen- 
eral university course. In order to do this its chairs must be 
filled by original investigators. 
— Limulus polyphemus, the horse-shoe or horse-foot crab, as it 
is called in New Jersey, in whose flat sandy bogs it lives in im- 
mense numbers, is becoming useful as food for fishes. Enormous 
numbers are fed to eels, which greedily devour them. In one pond 
they were said to consume seven hundred and fifty horse-feet 
in three days. It would seem impossible to furnish so many, but 
the number does not begin to detail the extent of the catch. 
Millions of them are annually fed to swine and poultry, and some 
men make a business of catching them. On June 15, after a 
storm, Captain Downs, with a trap of his own invention, caught 
one thousand “feet,” and between the 15th of July and April his 
aggregate catch was nineteen thousand. 
— The St. Louis Academy of Science and the Missouri His- 
torical Society according to the Kansas City Review of Science, 
have finally gained the property which has been so long in litiga- 
tion and will probably at once erect a building suitable for the 
purposes of both bodies. The property was given by the late 
James H. Lucas, a number of years ago, but the delivery was 
refused by his heirs on account of delay in complying with the 
terms of the grantor. . 
— James Macfarlane, Towanda, Pa.. is preparing a second and 
_ much improved edition of his Geological Railway Guide, and 
wishes persons who have used the book to send him corrections 
and additions. If it will be a saving of labor, they may send him 
their copies of the book containing such notes by mail, which he 
will return refunding the postage. 
— The French Association met at Blois, as announced on the 
3d inst. One of the most interesting subjects of the sitting was 
the examination of the Thenay geological strata, where Abbé 
Bourgeois thinks he has discovered Tertiary man. The principal 
French geologists arrived in Blois for the excursions, but there 
were very few foreigners. ) ` 
—Among the faculty of Bryn Mawr College for ladies, to be 
Opened next year near Philadelphia, we notice the name of 
