Page:The Harveian oration 1904.djvu/45

22 THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1904 From the colonnade a door marked e on the plan (Plate IV) leads into a square courtyard, the north side of which, marked ad in the plan, is formed by the façade of the temple proper. Here some of the hieroglyphs refer to I-em-hotep and his work (Plate VI). In the centre of this façade a door marked f leads into the larger anterior chamber of the temple. From this the doorg communicates with the inner sanctuary. The eastern wall of the courtyard has a curious elongated recess, many yards in length but only a foot-and-a-half in depth, marked ac in the plan, a narrow door, b, gives access to it. Between a and b a small aperture in the wall marked x communicates with this curious recess, and the remains of a second aperture exist further to the left. It is difficult to understand the purpose of this structure.' Plate VII represents the wall ac with the doorway and apertures referred to. A door marked h leads into a larger courtyard which again communicates by three doors on its western side with the colonnade.

Whether this further courtyard was a portion of the purlieus of the temple is uncertain, no doubt a considerable space would be required for the medical work of the priest physicians.

Plate V represents the west wall of the temple (shewing a mediaeval Coptic doorway broken through into the sanctuary), also a part of the 1. Is it possible this was a drug store or dispensary; the prescription being passed in at the one aperture and the medicine given out from the other?