28 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



ally adding water or I forget what other liquid, to 

 render it of the proper consistency. Next a certain 

 weight of the pill mass was rolled out by the help of 

 a simple but ingeniously arranged slab, into a long 

 worm of equal diameter and of standard length. Then 

 the worm was cut simultaneously into equal segments, 

 by the pressure of the grooved back of the same 

 slab, by means of which the segments were also rolled 

 into pills. 



The other day I visited the great store and 

 manufactory of chemical and other apparatus of 

 Messrs. Griffiths, in or near Aldwych Street, and 

 saw there a machine, occupying little more room than 

 a moderately sized washing-stand, that claimed to 

 turn out pills at the rate of one million in each 

 twenty-four hours, so if forty-five of these machines 

 were kept continually at work day and night, it would 

 enable a grandmotherly Socialist Government to 

 supply to every man, woman, and child of the forty- 

 five millions of inhabitants of the British Isles one 

 free pill daily. 



The out-patients clustered in the hall outside the 

 service window of the dispensary, and were supplied 

 in turn. Then the prescriptions of the in-patients 

 were handed in and attended to. It was a busy time. 

 I learnt to do most of my part pretty well in a very few 

 weeks, after which I was promoted to higher things. 



Having always the run of the dispensary, and 

 being a boy, I found certain drugs, such as liquorice, 

 much to my taste, but especially poppy seed. A 

 large number of poppy capsules were kept in stock 

 for making soothing lotions. They are full of seeds, 

 which contain no opium at all. These are not used for 



