re: #126 Cato the Elder

Gold is completely inert and harmless when ingested.

Gold will form ionic compounds that are used to treat arthritis, and these are not completely harmless. A long time ago I did some work for Immunex on the clinical drug trials for Enbrel, before Amgen bought them. Some of the patients were on “gold salt” injections. Also, there was an episode of House involving poisoning with gold compounds. I’m not sure any substance short of degenerate matter is considered completely inert anymore, this is why the inert gasses were renamed the nobel gases.