The 'Turner Collection'
The “Turner Collection”
The “Turner Collection” displayed on the ground and second floors of the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University consists of more than one thousand artefacts which chronicle the development of both production and dispensing of medicines from the early 19th to the mid-20th century and reflect the changing character of the pharmacy teaching programme until the adoption of modularisation. Over centuries, the Apothecary and later the Pharmacist was required to prepare and dispense bespoke preparations for individual patients. The early “simples” such as emplastums, ointments, liquids and drug powders were gradually replaced by increasingly complex unit dosage forms such as cachets, pills, pastilles, suppositories, tablets, and standardised mixtures and emulsions.
The Pharmacist prepared all of these medicinal products using “Secundum Artem” employing the skills which had been learnt during their comprehensive training. Such skills were extensively practised and taught in schools of pharmacy until the late 20th Century, when increasing regulation of manufacturing areas and an increased focus of the pharmacist on clinical pharmacy has resulted in these skills becoming less evident.
The “Turner Collection” includes equipment used to compound the “Secundum Artem” medicinal products, together with historical and contemporary glass and ceramic containers used to store and dispense the products. The “drug run” of drawers illustrates the broad range of natural products used in compounding the medicinal products, whilst the prescription ledger highlights the bespoke nature of the recipes compounded for specific patients.
Professor T D Turner OBE has assembled the display over a period of more than fifty years and is expected to transfer ownership and management to the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University for the benefit of both historians and future pharmacy students interested in the origins of their chosen profession of pharmacy.