OBITUARY NOTICES. 
427 
his only degrees of graduation were from the Medical College 
at Woodstock, Vermont, in the year 1850, and the Jefferson 
Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1853. 
Dr. Toner inherited from his parentage, which was of the 
good old solid stock of Pennsylvania farmers, an ample 
physical frame and an excellent constitution. His temper¬ 
ament was cheerful and hopeful, his manner winning, and 
his sunny smile is remembered as a marked personal charac¬ 
teristic. He very early developed a strong ambition for 
learning, and having chosen the profession of medicine as his 
business, he perfected his knowledge of the art by several 
years of study and practice in western Pennsylvania. Am¬ 
bitious for a wider field, the young practitioner removed 
to Washington city in 1855, and soon acquired a large 
and remunerative practice. His genial, hearty manner 
came to the invalid like a ray of sunshine, infusing hope 
and pleasure. During the Civil War period of 1861-1865 
he did much gratuitous service in the hospitals. At the 
same time his active zeal was devising aid toward the estab¬ 
lishment of institutions of charity in our city, and Provi¬ 
dence Hospital, two orphan asylums, and in later years 
Garfield Hospital owe very much to Dr. Toner’s activity in 
their foundation, and gratuitous medical aid to some of 
them for a long series of years. Pie was long a leading 
member of the board of managers of the Government Hos¬ 
pital for the Insane at St. Elizabeth’s, and became president 
of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, and of 
the American Medical Association. 
He established the “Toner Lectures” in 1872 by a fund 
of $3,000, one-tenth of the income of which was added to the 
principal annually, while nine-tenths went to compensate 
skilled lecturers on some newly developed feature of medical 
science. He also gave annual medals for scientific essays 
by students of Jefferson Medical College and Georgetown 
University. 
But it is chiefly Dr. Toner’s labors as a writer and a col¬ 
lector of books that enlist our attention. From the year of 
his arrival in Washington to the time of his decease, he was 
