Memorial of Dr. Joseph M. Toner / by Ainsworth R. Spofford.

  • Ainsworth Rand Spofford
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorial of Dr. Joseph M. Toner / by Ainsworth R. Spofford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    bad tliat strong tendency to build up theories which is common t fertile minds, and had to abandon many which experience and observe tion failed to substantiate. Perhaps the leading characteristic of hi l)ursuit of scientihc subjects was assiduity rather than originality. H pursued every subject which interested him, especially in later years with an energy which sought out all the means of elucidation withii his reach, and he was not satisfied until he had seen and weighed what ever there might be in books and periodicals upon the topic in hand. We may view him next as a writer, and his contributions to the press were neither few nor small. His first little book, Maternal Instinct printed in 1864, at Baltimore, was a serious discussion of the functions and the duties of motherhood, and evinced his earnest bent toward practical views of life. His second book, a Dictionary of Elevations and Climatic Register of the United States, published at Washington in 1874, was more important. It was the first attempt, so far as known, to put before the j)ublic in book form and in ali)habetical order tlie heights above sea level of all cities, towns, and mountains which could be ascertained. These were scattered through, very numerous sources of information, in periodicals, Government reports, etc., and to gather them together involved protracted and patient labor, for which Dr. Toner's assiduous zeal in pursuit of a cherished object well qualified him. The book, as published, is open to the drawback that the reader has to consult two alphabets instead of one, and this was caused by the material growing upon him after he had printed off a large portion of the w'ork, which forms the first alphabet. This may be regarded as an object lesson to authors and compilers not to be too hasty in going to press, observing the Horatian rule of a nine years' incubation rather than to bring out an immature production, ever mindful of the Eoman maxim, Litera scripta manet. Still, it is most creditable to the subject of our notice to have been the i)ioneer in a field of scientific research which has had many more recent publications, under the auspices of various bureaus of the Government connected with military, geological, and geodetic surveys. In the field of medical and hygienic literature Dr. Toner published, in 1874, Contributions to the Annals of Medical Progress and Medical ICducation in the Uuited States, which was brought out by the Bureau of Education. Shortly after appeared his Address before the liocky Mountain Medical Association, afterwards exi^anded into a vol- ume (Washington, 1877), and abounding in historical and biographical material concerning early American physicians and surgeons. He very early made it a special object to collect from the most widely scattered sources all the information existing relating to the men of his profession during the period of the American Pevolution. It was this pursuit, occui)ying several years' labor, which first gave him that strong bent toward historical, and especially biographical, investigations, which finally absorbed nearly all of his time and energies. To gather this
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