Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
August,  1903.  / 
Jo  hi  Michael  Maisch. 
361 
permanent  secretary  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
and  a  member  of  the  Pharmacopceial  Revision  Committee. 
In  addition  to  these  occupations,  John  M.  Maisch  took  an  active 
interest  in  the  work  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadel- 
phia, and  also  of  the  German  Society,  and  in  later  years  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Philosophical  Society. 
In  1878  he  was  instrumental  in  founding  the  Pennsylvania  State 
Pharmaceutical  Association,  in  the  annual  meetings  of  which  he 
always  took  an  active  interest,  being  a  regular  attendant  and  a  fre- 
quent contributor  to  the  proceedings.  He,  however,  persistently 
refused  to  accept  any  office. 
In  addition  to  the  numerous  contributions  to  contemporary  jour- 
nal literature,  Professor  Maisch,  in  i860,  edited  and  revised  a  trans- 
lation of  Rochleder's  Proximate  Analysis  of  Plants  and  Vegetable 
Substances.  This  first  appeared  in  serial  form  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Pharmacy  in  1 861-62,  and  was  later  issued  as  a  sepa- 
rate volume,  sold  by  Charles  Ellis  &  Son.  (See  review,  A.  J.  P., 
1862,  p.  492.)  In  1874  ne  edited  and  revised  Griffith's  Universal 
Formulary,  the  resulting  volume  being  an  octavo  of  about  500  pages, 
containing  more  than  5,000  formulas. 
The  first  edition  of  the  National  Dispensatory  appeared  in  1879, 
followed  in  six  months  by  the  second.  The  third  appeared  in  1884,  the 
fourth  in  1887,  the  fifth  in  1888,  and  the  sixth,  to  which  he  had  also 
contributed  many  corrections,  in  1893,  only  a  few  months  after  his 
death. 
The  first  edition  of  his  Organic  Materia  Medica  appeared  in  1882, 
the  second  in  1885,  the  third  in  1887,  the  fourth  in  1 890,  the  fifth 
in  1892,  while  a  sixth,  edited  by  his  son,  appeared  in  1895.  These 
last  two  works  are  so  well  and  so  favorably  known  that  it  will  not 
be  necessary  to  describe  them,  or  even  to  refer  to  the  huge  amount 
of  work  that  books  of  this  kind  usually  represent. 
The  argument  that  working  under  such  high  pressure  would 
have  a  tendency  to  shorten  his  life  never  appealed  to  Professor 
Maisch  as  a  reason  for  relinquishing  or  even  shirking  any  of  the 
duties  that  fell  to  his  lot.  He  gave  to  everything  that  his  name  was 
connected  with  his  personal  attention.  It  mattered  little  what  the 
work  at  hand  was,  whether  it  was  the  writing  or  revision  of  a  book 
or  essay,  the  editing  of  the  Journal,  the  work  in  connection  with  the 
office  of  permanent  secretary  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
