In order to study a mummy, scientists perform a number of procedures, similar in some ways to those used by a medical examiner who conducts an autopsy.

Of course, it wasn't always like this. During the 1800s and early 1900s, when studying Egyptian mummies was a popular pastime, a mummy would be unrolled and destroyed in front of a number of invited guests. After the unwrapping was over, the mummy and its wrappings were simply thrown away.   Today, scientists try to preserve the mummy under analysis. Because of this care and con­cern, people might think that mummies cannot provide as much information as they used to. However, thanks to the crusading work of many scientists, including Dr. A. Rosalie David formerly of the Manchester Museum, most mummies studied with nondestructive methods not only survive such examination in good shape, they reveal much more information than in the past.

What exactly do scientists do, then? Here's a list of the steps a team will take to coax a mummy to talk and yet keep it safe:

Document its appearance with photographs. Before work on a mummy — especially an accidental one that was just discovered — is begun, a series of photographs will be taken to record every aspect of its appearance. In this way, scientists will be able to see if the mummy's condition starts to deteriorate or otherwise change.

X-ray the body completely. X-rays will reveal what is inside a wrapped mummy and the condition of the body. Sometimes more than one body has been found inside a wrapped mummy; other times an extra head or leg or even a baby has been discovered. X-rays may also reveal certain diseases or afflictions that the person suffered. By using x-rays, a scientist does not have to unwrap or un­dress the mummy.

Examine the material in which the mummy is wrapped. Before any type of internal study can be under­taken, textile or basketry experts are called in to examine the material encasing the mummy. The textile expert may take a microscopic snippet of material to analyze. If the material is very rare, scientists may be unable to examine the body further.

Conduct a dental examination. A thorough check of a mummy's teeth will reveal a great deal about the type of food a person ate and his health. A scientist will want to know if and how the teeth are worn down, which teeth are decayed or missing, and whether the mouth contains any signs of injury. All of this can reveal the person's diet and perhaps even show how he died. But scientists will only conduct this type of exam if the mummy's mouth is open.

Study samples of the mummy's tissues under a microscope. Called a histological exam, this allows scien­tists to get a closeup look at the soft tissues taken from muscles and organs. It is particularly valuable to show any diseases that the person had at the time of death. But such an examination is not always possible; it depends on the condition of the mummy and how much of it re­mains. Often, a mummy will be quite brittle and dry. In this case, tissues must be rehydrated (that is, mixed with a solution of water and other chemicals) to bring them back to the original condition. But scientists are unwill­ing to damage a mummy to retrieve any tissue samples.

Microscopic skin samples, for example, may be snipped from areas of the body that will not be on display (from its underpart, for example). Organ samples (from the lungs or liver, for example) cannot be taken if the scientist must make an incision and thereby mutilate the mummy. However, scientists are often helped by the mummymakers themselves. Sometimes they made inci­sions that provide today's scientists access to internal organs. Other times, they removed a person's internal organs and preserved them separately in jars or wrapped packages; samples can be taken without disturbing the mummy.

Examine the mummy's esophagus, stomach, and in­testines. An endoscope, a medical tool which normally allows doctors to examine the stomach and intestines for ulcers or cancer, has most recently been used by some mummy scientists. With an endoscope, a scientist can look for signs of disease and even discover the last meal that the person ate. This examination avoids the prob­lems associated with older methods; it does not damage the mummy since the scientist uses the mouth or rectum (the body's normal openings) as the route for the endo­scope. Of course, this exam does not work with most non-Egyptian mummies whose bodies are brittle and whose mouths may be closed. In this case, a scientist might like to perform a postmortem by removing the chest plate and looking at the lungs and other internal organs. Of course, this procedure can damage the mummy severely, so it is usually not done.