Publication InformationFlorence Sept 27 67

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Dear Baird

Among these stamps are two Italian of 60 c. I rarely receive any larger than 40. I believe there are some of 80 c but so far as I know none of greater value --

I have just recd yours of the 23' Aug. Much obliged for the trouble you have taken about the humming birds. I want them for the Princess Marguerite of Savoy, who has been very kind to our nieces, and who is one of the most beautiful and most highly gifted young persons I have ever known. With her, beauty of form & plummage would be the object rather than any thing else. I hope I may not miss Mr Bell, by absence, for the above date is a fib, I being now at Divonne on the French side of the hill, an hour & a half from Geneva, at a water cure, for sciatica, where I

may stay a month, if the cold water (43 F.) does not wash the soul out of me.

The curiosity of the princess has been excited about flying squirrels, & we have promised to try to get some for her--alive that is -- Is such a thing possible? I would give anything for a pair or two.

I came to Switzerland to give Mrs Marsh a chance to meet Dr Sims. He says she is doing well, & will need no further attention till Spring, when she must go to Paris. I hoped to do some mountain work, but though I was a week at Chamonix in glorious weather. I did not set foot on a glacier, being confined to the house with sciatica. It was a sore disappointment to me for of my many old tastes the love of

rocks & ice is almost the only one that has survived. Taking away this enjoyment is taking away the longest & best half of my material life.

Mrs Marsh joins me in love to you all

Yours trulyG P Baird

Prof. Baird

References in this letter:

In 1868 when Princess Marguerite of Savoy married her cousin, Prince Umberto, in Turin Marsh present ed the coupel with flying squirrels from America.

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