642 MEMORIAL OF DR. JOSEPH M. TONER. 



victuals relative to some branch of medical science, to be read in the 

 city of Washington, under the name of "The Toner lectures," each 

 of these memoirs or lectures to contain some new truth fully estab- 

 lished by experiment or observation." 



As these lectures were intended to increase and diffuse knowledge, 

 several of them were accepted for publication in the Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections. The first of the course was by Dr. J. .1. 

 Woodward, "On the structure of cancerous tumors," and was printed 

 in 1873. Nine other lectures, by Dr. C. E. Brown-Sequard, Dr. J. M. 

 Da Costa, Dr. W. Adams, Dr. E. O. Shakespeare, Dr. G. E. Waring, jr., 

 Dr. C. K. Mills, and Dr. Harrison Allen, have since been published by 

 the Institution, the last having appeared in 1890. The original fund, of 

 which one-tenth of the annual interest was to be added to the principal 

 and the residue devoted to an honorarium for the lecturers, has grown 

 to over $5,000 by careful investment. It affords a practical example 

 of a wise method of endowment by which even a small sum may be 

 made to yield instruction to large audiences for a series of years. 



Dr. Toner gave a gold medal for three years to proficient students in 

 Jefferson College, and a similar medal for many years past, known as 

 the Toner medal, has been awarded at Georgetown University, for the 

 best essay upon some topic in natural science. 



His most notable public benefaction, however, was his gift in 1882 

 of his entire private library to the Government, the first, and thus far 

 the sole instance of any considerable collection being thus bestowed 

 by any private citizen. The gift, comprising about 27,000 volumes — 

 medical, historical, and miscellaneous — besides a multitude of pam- 

 phlets and periodicals, was accepted by a special act of Congress, and 

 a bust of Dr. Toner, executed in marble by J. Q. A. Ward, was ordered 

 by the Library Committee, and is placed, with the admirable full length 

 oil portrait of hiui by E. F. Andrews, in the Library. 



Dr. Toner, in addition to this gift in his lifetime, bequeathed by will 

 all his remaining books, manuscripts, pictures, and curios to the 

 Library of Congress, while to the Cambria County Medical Associa- 

 tion, at Johnstown, Pa., he has given all duplicates of his books and 

 periodicals. 



The Toner collection, while of course it largely duplicates what is 

 already in the Congressional Library, also supplements that collection 

 in many important directions, especially in medical journals, while the 

 special and unique collections in biography and Washingtoniana, 

 already referred to, give to it a great and permanent value. It lias 

 been catalogued, excepting a portion of its pamphlets and serials, and 

 while hitherto it has never been adequately or even respectably stored, 

 because of the utter want of room in the Capitol, a place of honor in a 

 corner pavilion of the new Library building, selected by Dr. Toner, 

 will be devoted to the arrangement and preservation of his collection. 



It may be hoped that other collectors of valuable libraries and of 



