176 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
No. 17. — Results of a Chemical Examination of the Shells of 
Crabs and Lobsters, and of those of Oysters, Clams, Mus- 
sels, and ‘other Shell-fish. By F. H. StorER, Professor 
of Agricultural Chemistry. 
Tue chemical composition of most of the sea-weeds that are em- 
ployed as manures has been studied with a good deal of care by Euro- 
pean chemists; and it might be said of sea-shells also, that a consider- 
able amount of information as to their composition, that would be of 
interest to farmers, has been gained, and may be found recorded in one 
place and another. But, in so far as I am aware, no special examina- 
tion of the shells of crustaceans and mollusks, from the farmer’s point 
of view, has hitherto been undertaken. 
It was my intention to make good this deficiency, and to determine 
the fertilizing constituents of all the shells of our sea-coast that are 
large enough or common enough to claim the attention of the farmers 
who have access to such materials. I had intended, furthermore, to 
examine the various kinds of quick-lime, obtained from limestones, 
that are merchantable in this vicinity, and to contrast their composition 
with that of the shells and of the “shell-lime” that is prepared from 
them. Circumstances have prevented me from carrying out this idea ; 
and the following statement is consequently far less complete than I 
had hoped to make it. But it is nevertheless true that the results of 
the research are correct in so far as they go, and that they add some- 
thing to what was known before of the matters to which they relate. 
The substances examined are described in the following paragraphs. 
I would here express my thanks to Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, of 
Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts, for his kindness in procuring for me 
abundant supplies of most of the materials enumerated, as well as a 
number of other specimens that I have been forced to leave un- 
touched. 
I. Shells of the common Lobster (Homarus Americanus, Milne-Edwards), 
obtained, after the lobsters had been boiled, from fish-dealers in Boston 
and Cambridge. A considerable quantity of shells taken from the bodies 
of lobsters, but not from their claws or legs, were reduced to powder, and 
passed through a sieve having meshes of 1 mm. diameter, in order to 
obtain a fair sample for the analysis. 
