JAMES MUSPRATT 77 



Crow Theatre. The intimacy of this friend- 

 ship is seen in the fact that James Muspratt 

 named two of his sons, James Sheridan, and 

 Edmund Knowles, after him. These early 

 friendships revealed traits of character and 

 tastes which were strikingly developed in 

 after years. James Muspratt loved literature, 

 especially romance, poetry, and the drama; 

 he highly appreciated the gifts of literary and 

 scientific men, who found in him a worthy 

 and congenial friend. 



As soon as his small inheritance came into 

 his hands he determined to use the know- 

 ledge which he had acquired during the years 

 he spent with the Dublin apothecary. He 

 began by manufacturing a few simple 

 chemicals, one of which was hydrochloric 

 acid, but in the course of a short time he was 

 joined by a Mr. Abbott, who put some 

 money into the business, and then they made 

 prussiate of potash, for which there was a 

 great demand. He would now be a young 

 man of about five-and-twenty. 



France had nurtured the sciences to a 

 greater extent than any other European 

 country, and towards the close of the last 

 rrntury it was the focus of genius: Lavoisier, 

 Arago, Th^nard, Berthollet, Vauguelin, and 



