(Cd. EQ.=56.)

Cadmium is a metal of a white color, resembling tin, and a bar of it creaks when it is bent in the same manner as tin. It is found as a sulphuret, in combination with some ores of zinc. Sp. gr. 8.6. None of the salts of cadmium are officinal.

Sulphate of Cadmium (Cd O, So3 + 4 HO) resembles in appearance sulphate of zinc; it is crystalline and soluble in water, in large doses it produces vomiting: it is said to possess anti-syphilitic properties, and applied in solution topically acts as an astringent and irritant, and may be used for the same purposes as the sulphate of zinc. Its action is said, however, to be ten times more powerful.

Iodide of Cadmium (Cd I) [not officinal in U. S. P.], occurs in pearl-like crystalline scales; made into an ointment it forms an efficient preparation, which may be used in the same eases, and has the same action as the iodide of lead; while the staining which the latter salt produces is not produced by the cadmium salt; this renders the iodide of cadmium a more desirable remedy when we wish to avoid the production of the yellow disfiguration. Cadmium, when absorbed, into the system, is not known to produce injurious effects, as is the case with lead. The ointment may consist of from thirty to sixty grains rubbed up with an ounce of lard.