Publication InformationMilan Jany 4 1853

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Dear Baird

The Museo Civico at Milan whereof Cavaliere Giorgio Jan is the Director, is a respectable institution devoted to the cultivation of science, and has a small library and a good and well-arranged collection of specimens in all branches of Natural History, especially, I should in entomology with duplicates for exchange. They would like to be put in communication with the Smith. Inst. If there be no objection why not enter into correspondence with them & send them your books amp&;c? If you want fish from Monte B[...] they could help you. Of these fish there are marvelous collections every where in Lombardy, but specially at Verona & you can send by way of Genoa

Speaking of museums, of which I am a very sorry judge, I have seen none which struck me as more remarkable than that at Prague (I didn't visit the Vienna one). In mineralogy, it is certainly extraordinary, & there are odd fowl in the ornithological dept, which however is not in as good order as one might wish. I think you may get an Auerochs skeleton from the Emp. of Russia without any difficulty. He had above 1000 run in one forest and I dare say you can manage in time to secure a Bactrian camel from Vienna. There are four living over in the Thiergarten at Schonbrunn, & I have no doubt, from the look & of the humps, that the skeleton would be found to differ essentially in the spinal arrangements from that of the African. Apropos of Camels. Why don't you let me know what became of that sorry ? I wrote you from Vienna praying you to rescue it if not too late. Write forthwith and say if you got it out of the devils clutches. Enclose your letters to [...] Miller U.S. Dispatch Agent Henrietta

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Street, Convent Garden. If you have got the foolish things you may show it to Gilliss & Markoe.

I am in daily expectation of instructions to return to Athens or Constantinople, & suppose, that about April next, I may look for instructions of a different sort. Well, well, I've had my day, & must give place to my betters. One of my Constantinople English friends is very much afraid I shall be succeeded by a . There are so few decent people at Stamboul that makes a difference
I am very glad Gilliss has got home safe, & have no doubt his observations will do him & the gov't credit Since I wrote the above Mr. Emilio Cornalia, Assistant Director of the Museo Civico, & another officer have called & expressed an earnest desire that the S.I. would send them its publications & though poor they will do what they can in return, & also by way of exchange of objects in Nat. Hist. By means of the U.S. store ships which

make frequent voyages to Spezzia & Genoa things can be sent to & fro without cost, & no doubt the U.S. Consul at Genoa would take charge of them. My poor wife, who was promised great things by the Vienna Doctors, has been thus far sadly disappointed, but I have a good deal of confidence in their predictions still. I expect instructions daily, but [...] I shall [...] Athens or Const. I have no ideas.

To return to the Smithsonian It is a great error to print so few reports. I have met many scientific men who had never heard of it, & who when its character was explained to them, expressed a strong desire to know more of it & to be in correspondence with it. A brief history of it, embracing a summary of its reports, might be printed at small cost, widely distributed with good effect. There are minor literary & scientific associations in Europe, which occasionally issue publications of great value. Among them a Bohemian Lit. Soc. which has published a most valuable Osakich dictionary in 4 vols 4to & other things.

[The following text is written at the top of the first page]
Does Mr Jewett know of it?

Yours trulyG P Marsh

Prof S. F.Baird

References in this letter:

Marsh published two works on the Camel: "The Camel," in Report of the Smithsonain Institution for 1854, 98-122. 33 Cong. 2 Sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. 24. Washington, 1855. The Camel: His Organization, Habits and Uses, considered with Reference to His Introduction into the United States. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1856.

Charles Coffin Jewett (1816-1868), a distinguished librarian from Brown University, was appointed senior assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1848. He and Joseph Henry were continually in conflict over the importance of the library within the Institution's mandate and he was fired by the Board in 1855. He later became superintendent of the Boston Public Library.