John Michael Maisch

John Michael Maisch

John Michael Maisch (30 January 1831 Hanau, Germany – September 10, 1893) was a United States pharmacist, the "father of adequate pharmaceutical legislation."

He was the son of Conrad Maisch, a merchant. He received his early education in the free schools of Hanau. When he was 12, his parents apprenticed him to a goldsmith. This only lasted three days since school officials disapproved and demanded his return to academic studies. One of his teachers introduced him to the study of mineralogy and microscopy, and he did practical fieldwork in the Hanau vicinity. He conceived an ambition for a university education. He was at first inclined toward theology, but an increasing interest in natural science led him to devote himself to scientific studies. His devotion to his studies was such that his health became undermined, and he was obliged to give up his close application to study as well as his ambition for a university education.

He joined the military service of Hesse and imbibed the revolutionary ideas circulating among the soldiers at that time. Feeling the inconsistency of his situation, he left the military for the Turners and joined them in promulgating revolutionary ideas in the Main River valley. This resulted in him being arrested in Sinsheim and sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment at hard labor. With the help of friends, he escaped.

He emigrated to the United States in 1849, and initially worked in a factory in Baltimore, Maryland. His interest in natural science led him to become acquainted with two doctors, Wiss and Vogler, who helped him study pharmacy, and he was employed in a drug store owned by Wiss. When that store was sold, he became a clerk in Washington, D.C., then Philadelphia (1853), then New York City and again, in 1856, in Philadelphia, when he also became an instructor at Edward Parrish's School of Practical Pharmacy. In Philadelphia, one of his employers was Robert Shoemaker, a pioneer wholesale druggist and manufacturing pharmacist. Maisch aided in the inspection of the roots, barks, leaves, chemicals, etc., that came into the store. He published his first paper, “On the Adulteration of Drugs and Chemical Preparations,” in the American Journal of Pharmacy in May 1854.

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