Alchemy: Ancient and Modern

§ 35. The celebrated Dominican, Thomas Aquinas (see plate 8), was probably a pupil of Albertus Magnus, from whom it is thought he imbibed alchemistic learning. It is very probable, however, that the alchemistic works attributed to him are spurious. The author of these works manifests a deeply religious tone, and, according to Thomson’s History of Chemistry, he was the first to employ the term “amalgam” to designate an alloy of mercury with some other metal.[45]