_=Quæry=, Whether or no these most subtil Atoms of Gold are capable
of performing any thing in Medicine, and of displaying their
hidden Vertues like Vegetables, without any other unlocking of
them._
For answer, I say no. For the Stomach is too weak to dissolve and get
thence that efficacy as it doth from Vegetables, though it be thus
reduced in a most tender and subtile substance. In vain therefore is
it administred to the sick, because it passeth out again with the
Excrements so as ’twas taken in, and that without any remarkable
efficacy.