Aged upwards of sixty, admitted here about six years ago, when he was
brought from Exeter gaol, where he had been previously confined eight
years.
This man exhibits in his person the remains of a fine, portly, athletic
fellow, and is still straight, erect, and above six feet high. He
was a coachmaker; and the cause of his first confinement commenced
at a public-house in Devonshire, where he had been drinking; and in
consequence of some dispute about the reckoning, he refused to pay his
part of the score. An officer was sent for to enforce the payment; very
irritating words arose, and Zorn, in his rage, uttered some seditious
expressions, for which he was apprehended, tried, and convicted; and
in the course of his term of imprisonment arose those symptoms of
insanity which led to his subsequent detention.
The violence of his disease has, however, considerably yielded to
long confinement and advanced age, and the only prominent symptoms of
insanity now apparent is his constant anxiety to get out from here. His
persuasion is that he is only detained through the caprice and cruelty
of the keepers; who, he is sure, could let him go whenever they chuse;
and he is perpetually teazing and intreating, not only them, but all
the governors, physicians, and visitors that come near him, to let him
out to his business.
In all other respects he appears quite rational and collected, and is
cleanly, well-behaved, and harmless.