THE BODY SNATCHERS

The plundering of Scottish graves for anatomical subjects--apotheosized by two gentlemen, Burke and Hare, who murdered their own supply of fresh corpses--is worked for every conceivable shudder. But is this grisly scandal enough to fill a whole book? Not really, so Cohen tacks on chapters on ""How the Mummy Got Its Name,"" the search for King Arthur's tomb, the kidnapping of Marshal Petain's remains, zombies and ""screaming skull"" legends. The depth of scholarship is indicated by Cohen's introductory assurance that ""there is little religious objection"" to cremation today. One can predict the audience that will match this up, but the whole ""lighthearted"" project stinks of slapdash exploitation.