ectrolytic reduction of cadmium
oxide in potassium cyanide solution, obtained as a mean value 112.055. The
atomic weight of cadmium has been revised by G.P. Baxter and M.A. Hines
(_Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc._, 1905, 27, p. 222), by determinations of the
ratio of cadmium chloride to silver chloride, and of the amount of silver
required to precipitate cadmium chloride. The mean value obtained was
112.469 (Ag=107.93). The mean value 112.467 was obtained by Baxter, Hines
and Frevert (ibid., 1906, 28, p. 770) by analysing cadmium bromide.

CADMUS, in Greek legend, son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia and brother of
Europa. After his sister had been carried off by Zeus, he was sent out to
find her. Unsuccessful in his search, he came in the course of his
wanderings to Delphi, where he consulted the oracle. He was ordered to give
up his quest and follow a cow which would meet him, and to build a town on
the spot where she should lie down exhausted. The cow met him in Phocis,
and guided him to Boeotia, where he founded the city of Thebes. Intending
to sacrifice the cow, he sent some of his companions to a neighbouring
spring for water. They were slain by a dragon, which was in turn destroyed
by Cadmus; and by the instructions of Athena he sowed its teeth in the
ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called Sparti
(sown). By throwing a stone among them Cadmus caused them to fall upon each
other till only five survived, who assisted him to build the Cadmeia or
citadel of Thebes and became the founders of the noblest families of that
city (Ovid, _Metam._ iii. 1 ff.; Apollodorus iii. 4, 5). Cadmus, however,
because of this bloodshed, had to do penance for eight years. At the
expiration of this period the gods gave him to wife Harmonia (_q.v._),
daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, by whom he had a son Polydorus, and four
daughters, Ino, Autonoe, Agave and Semele--a family which was overtaken by
grievous misfortunes. At the marriage all the gods were present; Harmonia
received as bridal gifts a peplos worked by Athena and a necklace made by
Hephaestus. Cadmus is said to have finally retired with Harmonia to
Illyria, where he became king. After death, he and his wife were changed
into snakes, which watched the tomb while their souls were translated to
the Elysian fields.

There is little doubt that Cadmus was originally a Boeotian, that is, a
Greek hero. In later times the story of a Phoenician immigrant of that name
became