Publication InformationWashington July 11 '48

Carlisle

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Dear Baird

I held a discourse with Mr Hamilton certain days since, and said to him what seemed to me good touching you & your relations to your college. Mr H. was favorably disposed, seems to appreciate the value of your services, & will, unless I misunderstand him, advocate the raising of your salary

to an equality with that of the other professors. I have not heard a word from Burlington touching college matters since my correspondence with Mr Wheeler, & do not know whether any steps have been taken towards filling the vacant professorship, or not. I presume no appointment has been made, & because I do not learn, that any meeting of the Board has been called, but it is possible that encouragement of an appointment has been offered to some one. I shall write to Mr Wheeler by this mail & will let you know

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the results. Our commencement is on the first Wednesday in August.

The Smithsonian will come out right some time or other, but [...] its present management little is to be hoped. The National Institute here is making a movement towards re-organisation, but, nothing will come of it. I have heard that the Geolog. Assoc. proposed some plan of centralisation.

I'm glad you've got all that arsenic & hope you'll poison & pickle a good many reptiles with it, that there may be the fewer to plague honest people.

Also I wish you [...] the roaches and Wanzen in Washington. They're a sore plague to housekeepers. I think you can afford to come by way of Washington well enough. I'll give you a Patent report & a dinner towards your expenses & perhaps a , if I can find a good one.

My poor wife is confined to her bed, & I feel some concern about her. She joins me, as does Miss Crane, in love to all, not forgetting "the baby" --

Yours trulyGeo P Marsh

References in this letter:

The Rev. Dr. John Wheeler (1789-1862) was president of the University of Vermont from 1833 to 1848. He offered Baird the chair of Chemistry and Natural History in December 1847.

The Smithsonian was founded in 1846 with a bequest of James Smithson for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." How this was to be accomplished, how the Institution should be organized and what should be the scope of its activities, became subjects of great controversy in the early years of its existence.

The National Institute for the Promotion of Science in Washington, DC was founded in 1840.