Physicians an opinion of him is quoted that he was too fond of displaying his talents upon paper; the result being that he published many volumes which are now forgotten. (A commentary which might be made on most other authors.) It is also said of him that his cases were not stated in the most delicate terms, nor was politeness among his excellences. As several of his works were about syphilis it may be that his style was merely perspicuous. He wrote comments on Dover's "Ancient Physician" and on Mr. Ward's Pill and Drop. His biographer, however, quotes from him with approval a pious exhortation to physicians not to be ashamed to avow their religious principles even if they kept their politics to themselves. "It can be no disgrace," he wrote, "for a physician who owns himself to be no more than Nature's minister to acknowledge himself also the servant of Nature's Master."
Turner's original formula for his Ceratum de Lapide Calaminari was to melt together 3-1/2 lb. of freshly made unsalted butter, 3-1/2 lb. of the best yellow wax, and 4 lb. of pure and newly-prepared olive oil. These when melted to be strained through a linen cloth, and while cooling, 3 lb. 10 oz. of the best calamine stone, "sufficiently triturated and passed through a Sierce," to be sprinkled into the mixture with constant stirring till it sets.
Turner's comments on this cerate are worth quoting, because they incidentally illustrate the pharmacy of the period. He says:—
"As I have had ample experience of this cerate, I may be allow'd, I hope, to judge of its singular properties and good effects in all cutaneous ulcerations and excoriations either from scalding, burning, or fretting of the said parts by means of salt, acrid, or sharp humours; upon
