A nightwatchman disturbs a body-snatcher who has dropped the stolen corpse he had been carrying in a hamper, while the anatomist runs away. Etching with engraving by W. Austin, 1773.

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<p>A nightwatchman, carrying a large lantern, has seized the body-snatcher by the shoulder and sounds a rattle in his raised right hand. A female corpse in its burial shroud falls out of the hamper in which it had been carried before being dropped. The body-snatcher tries to pass on the blame by pointing to the fleeing anatomist, who runs away to the right with a skull in the crook of his arm</p>
<p>The rise of private anatomy schools in eighteenth-century London saw an increase in the demand for cadavers for dissection and this in turn led to the employment of "Resurrectionists", body-snatchers who would steal corpses for use in the new schools. One of these schools was run by William Hunter (1718-1783) and he is referred to in this print by the dropped piece of paper inscribed "Hunter's lectu<res>". M.D. George in the British Museum catalogue (loc. cit.) describes the running man as "a lean man in a doctor's tie-wig" and identifies him as William Hunter himself. For other satires on William Hunter and his anatomy school and museum, see the Wellcome Library catalogue, nos 25405i and 25435i</p>

A nightwatchman disturbs a body-snatcher who has dropped the stolen corpse he had been carrying in a hamper, while the anatomist runs away. Etching with engraving by W. Austin, 1773.

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