108 Prof Stromeyer on the Discovery of Cadmium, {Fex. 
ARTICLE IV, 
Account of a newly discovered Metal, and the Analysis of a 
new Mineral. By Prof. Stromeyer. (in a Letter to Dr. 
Schweigger.) * 
Gottingen, April 26, 1818. 
Tue last number of your excellent journal, which I received 
yesterday, and which, among other interesting discoveries and 
researches, gives an account of a new metal discovered by 
Berzelius, has suggested to me the propriety of sending you for 
the same publication an account of a new metal discovered by 
me during the course of the last winter. 
As I was last harvest inspecting the apothecaries’ shops in 
the principality of Hildesheim, in consequence of the general 
inspection of the apothecaries of the kingdom having been 
entrusted to me by our most gracious Regency, I observed in 
several of them, instead of the proper oxide of zinc, carbonate of 
zinc, which had been almost entirely procured from the chemical 
manufactory at Salzgitter. This carbonate of zinc had a dazzling 
white colour ; but when heated to redness, it assumed a yellow 
colour, inclining to orange, though no sensible portion of iron 
or lead could be detected in it. When I afterwards visited 
Salzgitter, during the course of this journey, and went to the 
chemical manufactory from which the carbonate of zinc had been 
procured ; and when I expressed my surprize that carbonate of 
zine should be sold instead of oxide of zinc, Mr. Jost, who has 
the charge of the pharmaceutical department of this manufactory, 
informed me that the reason was, that their carbonate of zine, 
when exposed to a red heat, always assumed a yellow colour, 
and was on that account supposed to contain iron, though the 
greatest care had been taken beforehand to free the zine from 
iron, and though it was impossible to detect any iron in the 
oxide of zinc itself. This information induced me to examine 
this oxide of zinc more carefully, and I found, to my great 
surprize, that the colour which it assumed was owing to. the 
presence of a peculiar metallic oxide, the existence of which had 
not hitherto been suspected. I succeeded by a peculiar process 
in freeing it from oxide of zinc, and in reducing it to the metallic 
state. I have found the same oxide in tutia, and in several other 
oxides of zinc; and it exists likewise, as might have been 
expected, in metallic zinc. But in all these bodies it exists only 
in a very minute proportion, which can scarcely exceed between 
tour and 1. of the whole. 
The properties by which this new metal is distinguished are 
the following : it has a light white colour, inclining a little to 
grey, and in this respect comes nearest to platinum. It has a 
great deal of brilliancy, and admits of a fine polish. Its texture 
* Translated from Schweigger’s Journal, xxi, 297, (Published May 28, 1818.) 
