Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Weisse, John Adam

WEISSE, John Adam (wys), philologist, b. in Ropperville, Lorraine, 3 Dec., 1810; d. in New York city, 12 Jan., 1888. He was graduated in classics and natural sciences at the college in Bitsche, and in chemistry and philosophy at the seminary in Metz, and subsequently became professor of French in the Imperial school in Vienna. He emigrated to this country in 1840, and during an eight-years' residence in Boston published a “Key to the French Language.” He went to Brussels in 1849, was graduated in medicine there in 1850, and settled in New York city, where he passed the remainder of his life. He retired from active practice several years previous to his death, devoting his later life to literary pursuits and lecturing before learned societies. He was president of the New York philological society. He published “Origin, Progress, and Destiny of the English Language and Literature,” which was favorably criticised by William E. Gladstone and Max Milller (New York, 1873), and “The Obelisk and Freemasonry” (1881).