A man walking along a country path is attacked by a bodysnatcher hiding behind a brick wall, who asphyxiates him by thrusting a heart-shaped plaster in his face. Coloured etching by Dickey Fubs, 1828.

The Oxford English dictionary defines "pitch-plaster" as "A dressing containing pitch, used as a depilatory. Also: a dressing containing Burgundy pitch, used in the treatment of chest and rheumatic disorders" and cites J. Theobald, Every man his own physician, 1764, "Scald head. Cover the head with a pitch plaster spread on leather"; also Times 3 Dec. 1913, "There circulated stories of gangs..whose business it was to attack lonely travellers, apply pitch plasters to the mouth and nostrils, strangle their victims, and sell the bodies". In another satirical print about bodysnatchers, dated 1829, both Britannia and the British lion have their mouths gagged with pitch-plasters ('The constitution of John Bull destroyed by the combined efforts of the Burkites', Wellcome Library catalogue no. 663317i, British Museum catalogue of political and personal satires no. 15708)