Disadvantages of the Method.
1 The avidity with which the dried oxalate takes up moisture from the air is an objection to its use for the determination of atomic weights. Even with the greatest care there is a slight element of uncertainty introduced from this source.
2 The oxalate is stated to decompose into a mixture of the oxide and metal. The temperature required for this decomposition is somewhat higher than the melting point of cadmium. The metal heated above its melting point possesses a vapor-tension and loss in weight must result, whatever precaution is taken in heating. This is the probable explanation why the results obtained by this method are lower than those of the preceding.
A comparison of the two methods leads me to attach much more importance to the results of that one which establishes the relation between cadmium and cadmium oxide directly and I therefore regard the atomic weight of cadmium as very closely expressed by the figure 112.07 when oxygen = 16.