Chem. Obs. [a. L. cadmīa, a. Gr. καδμεία or καδμία γῆ ‘Cadmean earth.’] ‘The ancient name of calamine’ (Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 569); also applied to a sublimate consisting of oxide of zinc (tutty), and to an ore of cobalt.
1657. Phys. Dict., Cadmia officinarum, Tutty.
1674. A. A. Barba, Art of Mettals, I. xxxiv. 146. Cadmia … is also that which sticks to the walls of the Furnaces, principally wherein Copper is melted.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Cadmia, sometimes signifies a fossil substance, as the Lapis calaminaris.
1837. Dana, Min. (1868), 409. The cadmia of Pliny and of other ancient authors included both the native silicate and carbonate, and the oxyd from the chimneys of furnaces (cadmia fornacum).
