In 1872, Dr. Toner established the "Toner Lectures" to encourage efforts towards discovering new truths "for the advancement of medical science ... for the benefit of mankind." To finance these lectures, he provided a fund worth approximately $3,000 to be administered by a board of trustees consisting of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (only in some years), and the president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. The interest from this fund was to compensate physicians and scholars who were to deliver "at least two annual memoirs or essays" based on original research on some branch of the medical sciences and containing information which had been verified "by experiments or observations."[1] The Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution agreed to have these lectures published by the Institution in its Miscellaneous Collections. The first lecture given by the Assistant Surgeon of the U.S. Army, "On the Structure of Cancerous Tumors and the Mode in which Adjacent parts are Invaded," deserves credit even by current standards of scientific research.[2] Only 10 lectures were given between 1873 and 1890 (see bibliography), despite the recommendation for at least two every year.[3] [Illustration: Figure 2.--DR. JOSEPH M. TONER, a leading physician in Washington, D.C., and founder of the "Toner Lectures" for the promotion and advancement of medical education and research. In 1873, Dr. Toner became president of the American Medical Association and, in 1874, he became president of the American Public Health Association. He was a physician to St. Joseph's Male Orphan Asylum and St. Ann's Infants' Asylum in Washington, D.C. In addition, he was instrumental in establishing Providence Hospital in the District of Columbia. He also provided a workable plan for the American Medical Association's library in Washington, D.C. (1868-1871). Among his several publications are: _Contributions to the Annals of Medical Progress and Medical Education in the United States before and during the War of Independence_ (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1874) and _Medical Men of the Revolution_ (1876). In 1882, he donated his large library, consisting of 44,000 books and pamphlets on topics related mainly to medicine and history, to the Library of Congress. (_Photo courtesy of National Library of Medicine._)] A more direct factor, which not only contributed to the establishment of a section on the healing arts, but also had a greater effect upon the Smithsonian Institution than any other event since its founding, was the 1876 centennial exhibition in Philadelphia.