Publication InformationFlorence Dec 26 '66

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Dear Baird

I have a package for thee which I conjecture to be from Cometrini or some other fowler or fisher. It shall go after certain days, with documents which be in preparation.

I never received thy volume about -- what was it, volatiles or natatory cattle?

I write at this time to beg pray and beseech you to have dear Mary consults Dr Sims who sailed for N.Y. a week ago, to remain not very long I suppose. Mrs Marsh was six weeks in his hands, & came back wonderfully improved, better than since 1846. If she could & would hold still two months she

would be as good as cured. But in her position, rest is almost, with her energetic character, quite impossible, & she will not be, I fear, altogether whole. Sims is miraculous where any manner of surgery is required. Perhaps that may not be your wife's case, but he ought to be consulted if possible.

I have no time for more Mrs M joins me in affectionate salutations to both of you & to Lucy

Yours trulyG P Marsh

Prof S F Baird

Jany 5 67
This letter did not go when it should. Yours of the 15 Dc came this morning. Straightway on the receipt

of it -- Lo what a good man I am! I am afraid I shall be translated -- I drove to the Museo & made demand of Segnior Welcome. They said that whilome there was a certain such who frequented the museum, but he had long since absquatulated --sgattajolare is the word in Italian--was dead, banished, extinct, and had written nothing about Frochilidæ or other hum bugs as birds, in the best of the janitor's knowledge. -- nathless, my friend, Mr Bocca promises the book, & if I can't send it sooner, it shall go with .

I am very glad Mary has seen Dr Emmett, but I earnestly beg you not to let Dr Sims come back to Europe without a consultation

Yours truly

G P M

References in this letter:

Giovanni Canestrini correct text Giovanni Canestrini (1835-1900) was an Italian zoologist and ichthyologist.

Dr. J Marion Sims, a gynecologist practicing in Paris, had operated on Caroline Crane Marsh for a noncancerous tumor of the womb in 1865.