section_path: History of the concept/Robert Boyle
section_name: Robert Boyle
paragraph_text: Robert Boyle
  
  The term "compound"—with a meaning similar to the modern—has been used at least since 1661 when Robert Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist was published. In this book, Boyle variously used the terms "compound", "compounded body", "perfectly mixt body", and "concrete". "Perfectly mixt bodies" included for example gold, lead, mercury, and wine. While the distinction between compound and mixture is not so clear, the distinction between element and compound is a central theme.
  
  Quicksilver... with Aqua fortis will be brought into a... white Powder... with Sulphur it will compose a blood-red and volatile Cinaber. And yet out of all these exotick Compounds, we may recover the very same running Mercury.