It is chemically related to cadmium and mercury, the resemblance to cadmium being especially well marked; one distinction is that zinc is less basigenic. Zinc is capable of isomorphously replacing many of the bivalent metals - magnesium, manganese, iron, nickel, cobalt and cadmium.
At the first division, the maternal and paternal chromosomes fuse together to form a bivalent, during which crossing-over occurs.
Those elements which are equivalent in combining or displacing power to a single atom of hydrogen are said to be univalent or monad elements; whilst those which are equivalent to two atoms of hydrogen are termed bivalent or dyad elements; and those equivalent to three, four, five or six atoms of hydrogen triad, tetrad, pentad or hexad elements.
