£35,000 GIFT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 266, 31 January 1928, Page 12

£35,000 GIFT

RESEARCH INSTITUTE “PRINCE OF BEGGARS” Lord Knutsford’s ability to raise money for the London Hospital has long since earned him the title ‘'Prince of Beggars.” But there was one man who had never, apparently, heard of the distinction, and that, strangely enough, was the most generous giver of the present day, Mr. Bernhard Baron whose donations to' various good causes this year already total over £200,000. Lord Knutsford related the incident yesterday at the opening of the Bernhard Baron Pathological Institute of the London Hospital, when the donor was present. He told how the work of this section was paralysed by lack of accommodation and funds. “In despair,” h 6 went on, “I went to Mr. Bernhard Baron. ‘What do you want?’ he asked me, when I invaded his office. r I told him that no one who had met me had ever asked such a question before." Lord Knutsford wanted what he always wants —money for tile “London.” He got it. Mr. Baron not only gave £IO,OOO to build the institute, but endowed it with £25,000. The institute, which bears his name, was opened by Sir Humphrey Rolleston, Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge, before a gathering of distinguished medical men. Donor’s Blessing Called on at the close of the ceremony to aid his blessing to his handsome gift, the generous benefactor said: “I only hope that you will find something here that will give a great deal of benefit to humanity. I hope X shall live to see the fruits of this institute.” The new addition to the hospital will have a threefold use—research, diaghosis and teaching, and the greatest of these is research. Its workers, under Professor Turnbull, the head of the department, are concerned not so much with the curing of diseases as with them prevention. “Nature,” said Professor Turnbull, "does not put a label upon diseased tissue which can be deciphered easily with a microscope; tile cipher lias to be W'orked out by research." “People who send donations to hospitals, ar e ready to surround the patients’ beds with flowers, but they are not prepared to surround them with pathologists," was another of his epigrams. The institute, which has four floors, includes 15 laboratories, a large lecture and class-room, specimen rooms, post-mortem theatre and a mortuary chapel. . -- ,