metal than the formula CdO indicated and that the increase in weight is due to this excess of metal being changed to oxide. The method of preparation of the oxide from the carbonate and the known properties of cadmium oxide render this view highly improbable, and the following two observations render it untenable: 1st. If this were the cause of the increase, the amount of increase would necessarily be the same in both platinum and porcelain crucibles, which is not the case. [Illustration] 2nd. Three grammes of cadmium oxide made from the carbonate were dissolved in dilute hydrochloric acid from which the air had been expelled by boiling. The oxide, which is very compact, was placed in a glass bulb which had been blown at the end of a tube. After displacing the air by filling the entire apparatus with recently boiled water, the exit of the tube was placed under boiling dilute hydrochloric acid, and the bulb heated until the water boiled. It was then turned over so that the steam displaced nearly all the water. On removing the flame the dilute hydrochloric acid at once filled the bulb. The exit tube was then quickly placed under a narrow tube filled with mercury and inverted over mercury in a dish. The bulb was then heated until the oxide had dissolved. By this method the gas would be boiled out of the solution and collected in the top of the narrow tube. As only a very small amount of steam and dilute hydrochloric acid go over at the same time, there is no danger of the gas formed being absorbed to any considerable extent. It is well to put the oxide into the bulb before the tube is bend. If the hydrochloric acid is too strong, it must be cooled before entering the bulb as otherwise the reaction is too violent, and the experiment may be lost. This experiment shows that there is no excess of cadmium present in the oxide employed for no gas was found. If three grammes of the oxide contained enough metal to take up .00126 grms. of oxygen, .00016 grms of hydrogen should have been set free, and its volume under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure would have been about 1.9 cubic centimetres. This experiment would also have shown the presence of carbon dioxide if any had been present. Discussion of the Oxalate Method.