Cadmium. Cd; at. wt. 112.41; at. no. 48; valence, 2. Discovered by Stromeyer and Hermann in 1818.

Silver-white, blue-tinged, lustrous metal; easily cut with a knife; available in the form of bars, sheets or wire or a gray, granular powder. d. 8.6. m. 321°. b. 767°. Insoluble in water; readily soluble in dil. HNO₃; slowly soluble in hot HCl; almost unattacked by cold, but converted into sulfate by hot H₂SO₄. Solns. of cadmium salts yield with H₂S or Na₂S a yellow ppt. insoluble in excess Na₂S - Cadmium salts are more toxic than those of zinc.

Use: A constituent of easily fusible alloys, e.g., Lichtenberg's, Abel's, Lipowitz', Newton's, and Wood's metal; soft solder and solder for aluminum; electroplating, deoxidizer in Ni plating; process engraving, electrodes for cadmium vapor lamps, photoelectric cells; photometry of ultraviolet sun-rays; filaments for incandescent lights; daguerrotypes. The powder is also used as an amalgam (1 Cd: 4 Hg) in dentistry.

Commercially available.

Toxicity: (Metal and compounds.) Ingestion: increased salivation, choking, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, tenesmus. Inhalation (dust or fumes): throat dryness, cough, headache, vomiting, chest pain, extreme restlessness and irritability, pneumonitis, possibly bronchopneumonia.