BOOK REVIEW : A Shred of Proof About Pharaohs : MUMMIES OF THE PHARAOHS; Modern Medical Investigations <i> by Maurice Bucaille</i> , <i> translated from French by Alastair D. Pannell and Maurice Bucaille</i> ; St. Martin’s Press, $18.95, 228 pages

When Howard Carter opened Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1925, he eagerly seized the golden objects, then had the mummy moved outside where temperatures above 100 degrees caused the tissues to burst.

Using “hot knives,” Carter cut the body away from the resin that glued it in place, unwrapped the bandages and impatiently broke the hands and skull in his rush to get hold of the gold bracelets and mask. Likewise, the feet broke as he took the gold from the sandals. When the corpse was picked clean, he had it stuffed, in pieces, back into its coffin.

Carter was interested in treasure, not the pharaoh’s remains. Egyptologists of that time did not value mummies for what they can reveal about antiquity, especially the pharaohs’ health, hereditary diseases and the causes of deaths.

Ancient Egypt has drawn international attention since the 19th Century, when British, French and American scholars carved out scholarly “spheres of influence.” The pharaohs, in particular, interest Jewish, Christian and Moslem scholars for the role they played in the Exodus.

Archeologist Maurice Bucaille, author of “Mummies of the Pharaohs” and a member of the French Society of Egyptology, was instrumental in arranging the first journey of a Pharaonic mummy outside Egypt. In September, 1976, following the Paris opening of an exhibition on Rameses II, Rameses’ remains arrived in Paris for examination by French experts at the Musee de l’Homme.

Bucaille wanted to examine Rameses II and his son, Marneptah, because he suspected Rameses was the Pharaoh in Exodus who ordered the death of first-born Hebrew boys, and Marneptah his successor who chased the Hebrews across the Red Sea. Bucaille’s “ultimate goal was to establish the exact causes leading to the death of this pharaoh (Marneptah), who we thought to be the pharaoh of the Exodus.”

Originally published in French in a slightly different version, Bucaille’s “Mummies of the Pharaohs” has either lost something in translation, or the Academie Francaise, which awarded it the 1988 history prize, has standards that do not weigh historical and scientific evidence.

Rameses’ mummy became a cause celebre when it was returned to Cairo; experts alleged it had been maltreated. Bucaille defends the French effort to preserve the mummy and denounces those who accuse him and his colleagues of malfeasance. This book, then, has a dual purpose: to defend the efforts made in France in 1976, and to convince the reader that Rameses and Marneptah are the biblical pharaohs.

Modern medical techniques, Bucaille tells us, have detected bilharzia eggs in mummy kidneys (proof that schistosomiasis was rampant then as it is today), cirrhosis of the liver and anthracosis of the lungs. Chemical tests have disclosed embalming methods. And scanning microscopes have revealed parasitic biological agents such as fungi, insect larvae and bacterial agents at work in decaying mummies.

For Bucaille, science is a tool of religion: Technology can be used to preserve the mummies of the pharaohs, which are in themselves valuable because they are a tangible connection to Moses, and thus, to God. He explains his passion: “Having looked at those closed eyelids, I was certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that Rameses II knew Moses personally.”

Bucaille buttresses his conclusion that Marneptah was the Exodus Pharaoh with quotations from Scripture. Pharaoh personally pursued the Hebrews at the head of his army to the “sea of rushes” into which the waters returned, covering “Pharaoh and his host” so that “no one of them remained.”

Bucaille moves on to the Koran, Sura, 10, verses 90 to 92, which elaborates on the Bible by explaining what happened next: Pharaoh’s body was found on the very same day and was thus not immersed in water. This fits Bucaille’s evidence; the skull of Marneptah, which he examined, was crushed as if by a great wave, and the body that was not waterlogged--that would have prevented mummification.

This is fine evidence for believers, but not for those who do not accept the Bible literally. The story of Moses is a tale about events sometime in 13th Century BC that was not written down for at least 300 years. The Koran was written in 7th Century AD, some 2,000 years after the events.

“Mummies of the Pharaohs” is filled with fascinating medical information about life in ancient Egypt. It is also filled with a surfeit of self-congratulatory remarks and finger-pointing.

Next: Jonathan Kirsch reviews “White Bear: Encounters with the Master of the Arctic Ice” by Charles Feazel (Henry Holt).