426 
JOSEPH MEREDITH TONER. 
The most important duty Mr. Taylor performed as editor 
while at the Smithsonian was the collection and publication 
of the Scientific Writings of Professor Henry. To this labor 
of love, for which he was perhaps better fitted than any 
other person, he gave a year or two of untiring devotion. 
Mr. Taylor enjoyed good health nearly the whole of his 
life, though for many years he had not taken the customary 
leave of absence from office, for rest and recreation. An 
attack of the grip in 1894, however, seemed to enfeeble 
him and he never regained his former vigor. His last ill¬ 
ness was brief. After much suffering from an incurable 
malady, and submitting to a surgical operation, he died in 
Washington on February 25, 1895, in the seventy-fifth year 
of his age, and his remains were buried in Woodlawn Cem¬ 
etery, Philadelphia, his native city. 
“ 0, good old man! how well in thee appears 
The constant favour of the antique world, 
When service sweat for duty, not for meed! 
Thou art not for the fashion of these times, 
Where none will sweat but for promotion.” 
JOSEPH MEREDITH TONER. 
1825-1896. 
[Read before the Society, January 9, 1897.] 
To commemorate, however briefly, the talents and char¬ 
acteristics of those who have gone from among us is due 
alike to this Society and to the memory of the departed. 
Our late associate, Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner, filled during 
more than forty years an increasingly marked and influen¬ 
tial position in the city of Washington. Born at Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, April 30, 1825, he died at Cresson, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, July 30,1896, while sitting in his chair, during a brief 
summer vacation. His early training was in the public 
schools, and later at the Western Pennsylvania University 
and at St. Mary’s College at Emmitsburg, Maryland, though 
