Although their content may vary somewhat over time, the annual reports of The Bryce Insane Hospital consist primarily of the reports of the Board of Trustees to the Governor, the Superintendent to the Board, the Treasurer's statement, the Steward's itemized account of receipts and expenditures, and an appendix of tables, rules and regulations, admission procedures and forms, and/or other data. Tabular information, financial statements, and other information may appear under different sections. The Trustees briefly summarize activities, suggest changes, and/or comment on the financial condition of the hospital. Tabular statements show the number of admissions and discharges; the number, age, sex, marital status, occupation, education, and class (paying, non-paying, criminal) of patients, predisposing and exciting causes (jealousy, sunstroke, hard work and worry, etc.), form, and duration of insanity; causes of death; productions of farm, garden, and dairy; articles made in the sewing room; and complimentary newspapers received. Occasionally present are 1850 and 1860 census figures of the "insane and idiotic," by state, and the names of asylums and weekly expenses of patients. Later reports also list officers and employees, with salaries; daily menus; costs of food per day; the number of patients by county and/or class; retrospective data from 1861; and the number and description of applicants rejected because of space limitations, by county, to illustrate discussions of either returning harmless incurables after two years to county poor-houses or of placing them in a new, separate facility. The Superintendent's report may also include remarks on the tables; a description of the buildings and grounds, their repairs and improvements; a summary of recreations and occupational therapy for the patients; suggestions for needed legislation, new practices, or new buildings; copies of bills; interesting events (in 1880 a telephone was rented from the Bell Company in Boston for communication with the nearby "Tuskaloosa"); accidents (a gardener was murdered by a patient with an axe); acknowledgements, sometimes listing the donor's name and gift of rose bush cuttings, a can of honey, or a bust of herself (Dorothea Dix); a copy of standards of construction and organization of mental institutions by the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane; and the names of retiring and succeeding staff members, with a few biographical sentences. The general observations, particularly those of Peter Bryce, often contain essays on causes (heredity, undue indulgence of the passions, political excitement, mental strain, business eagerness, alcoholism, special stresses present in the state, etc.), prevention, and treatment of mental illness. Bryce advocated the mechanical non-restraint of patients and in criminal cases, defined insanity as not only the ability to distinguish right from wrong, but also the "power" to act accordingly. A memorial to Bryce from the Board appears in the 1892 biennial report. A few later reports contain pathological autopsy findings comparing the incidence of patients with tuberculosis, kidney disease, and heart disease to their form of mental disorder and other data. Later reports are arranged by the departments of the Hospital: the Medical Dept., Business Dept., and the Out-Side Dept. Peter Bryce and James T. Searcy were Superintendents from 1860 to 1900. E.D. Bondurant, a pathologist at the hospital, served as Acting Superintendent in 1892. The facility was known as the Insane Hospital from 1852-1893. The Treasurer's statement covers receipts and expenditures from the Hospital Support Fund, the Hospital Improvement Fund, and for a period, the Gray Stone Park Fund. It also measures costs to the state, with retrospective data.
