600 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

cipal one being used for white patients and as an administration
building. The kitchen and laundry plants are in the basement
of this building. The building for colored patients, which cost
$10,000, was given by Mr. W. H. Sprunt. The first floor is
used for patients and the second for a nurses’ home. There are
twenty-eight nurses in training, with a superintendent of nurses
and one assistant. The course of training is three years. The
building for infectious diseases was given by Mr. Sam Bear, jr.,
as a memorial to his brother. While it is not the intention of
the hospital to receive such cases, they get in sometimes and
have to be cared for.

Recently the breadth of its service has been enlarged beyond
the most hopeful expectations of the management by a generous
benefaction of Mr. and Mrs. James Sprunt, augmented by a
trust fund left for this specific purpose by the late Edward
Payson George, who propose to build as a memorial to Mr. and
Mrs. Sprunt’s only daughter, Marion, an annex to the James
Walker Memorial Hospital which shall be devoted to the treat-
ment of white women and children. The quality and scope of
this loving service to the community command not only the
deepest gratitude of the hospital and of those who may share
directly in its benefits, but of the medical profession and of the
public. The following letter explains the nature and high pur-
pose of this proposed enlargement.

November 11, 1915.
SAMUEL BEAR, Esq.,

President James Walker Memorial Hospital.

Dear Mr. BEAR:—In August of the year 1901, I visited with my family
a so-called health resort where we were assigned apartments which

we ascertained too late were infected by recent cases of scarlet fever,
against the recurrence of which no precautions had been taken for the
protection of subsequent occupants. Our only daughter, Marion, aged
thirteen years, almost immediately fell a victim to this criminal neg-
lect and died after a very brief illness.

For many years since then my wife and I have desired in testimony
of our faith in a covenant-keeping God and in loving sympathy with His
suffering children, to erect in His name and as a memorial of our
lamented daughter a hospital for the care of maternity cases and sick
children, where their suffering might be alleviated or overcome by the
employment of modern scientific appliances and expert medical treat-
ment; and while our desire has been primarily the relief of suffering, it
was also hoped that the whole community might be benefited by af-
fording our local practitioners the opportunity of studying cases, which

can only be properly done in a well-regulated hospital, for, after all, a
good hospital is in the highest sense an educational institution of the

Peace Restored 601

first order. As Dr. Osler truly says in one of his addresses, “It makes
of the hospital a college in which the students learn for
themselves under skilled direction the phenomena of disease. It is the
true method, because it is the natural one, the only one by which the
Physician grows in clinical wisdom after he begins practice for him-
Self.” And in another lecture by the same distinguished authority I
read years ago: “I wish to plead particularly for the wasted opportuni-
ties in the smaller hospitals of our large cities, and in those of more
moderate size. There are in this State a score or more of hospitals
with from thirty to fifty medical beds offering splendid material for
800d men on which to build reputations.”

From time to time we have by costly experiments attempted to find
a way for the fulfillment of our desire, and as you know we have also
Made overtures to your board to that end, but the lack of your means
for its Support at the time in conjunction with your general hospital
work has been the chief obstacle.

Believing that the development of your splendid charity will now
admit of its greater extension along the lines of our endeavor, we pro-
Dose to erect as an annex to the James Walker Memorial Hospital a
Modern hospital for maternity and children’s cases for both pay and
charity patients, to cost between $25,000 and $30,000, completely fur-
nished, in line with the appliances of the best equipped institutions of
the United States and with the advice of competent medical and sur-
Sical authorities.

The institution is to be a part of your general hospital, supported
and maintained under its rules and regulations modified to meet the
Purposes already defined, to be free from any and all political influence
or control, and dedicated and restricted to the benefit of white women
and children.

More than one-third of the sum which we propose to expend in this
Cause has been left to James Sprunt and William H. Sprunt, in trust
for this specific purpose, by our daughter’s devoted friend, the late
cena Payson George, formerly of Wilmington. The remainder will
zis paid by James Sprunt and his wife, Luola Murchison Sprunt, and the

nex is to be designated and known as the “Marion Sprunt Memorial.”

My brother-in-law, Mr, Kenneth M. Murchison, an eminent architect
a SS a age who drew the original plans, has kindly offered to con-
tha? sau ze — and talents in this cause, and I respectfully request
enrliogt 1 convene a meeting of your Board of Managers at your
act ee to discuss this matter with him and with us and in-

€ plans and specifications provided for your approval.

Very truly yours,

of

JAMES SPRUNT.

The Board of Managers responded to this generous offer by

€ following resolutions expressing fitting and grateful ac-
nowledgment :

Resolved
Mr, Jj

Plete

, That this board accept with grateful thanks the offer of
ames Sprunt and Mrs. Sprunt to erect, equip, and furnish com-
an annex to the hospital building of this hospital to be devoted to

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