APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

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On April 7:

1849 — Pennsylvania Governor William F. Johnson laid the cornerstone of the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, although preliminary work had begun in 1848. The hospital's board of trustees first met on February 14, 1851, and elected John Curwen to be superintendent, with a salary of $1500 per year. The first patient, Elizabeth B. of Londonderry, was admitted on October 6, 1851. The hospital is now named Harrisburg State Hospital.

1859 — Jacques Loeb was born. Loeb applied the concept of orienting responses of plants, called tropisms, to animal behavior, resulting in a mechanistic explanation of animal behavior. His work was summarized in his books The Mechanistic Conception of Life (1912) and Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct (1918). Comparative psychology was strongly influenced by Loeb's work.

1884 — Bronislaw Malinowski was born. Malinowski's studies in cultural anthropology contributed to the psychological appreciation of the importance of social influences on behavior and moral judgment.

1884 — G. Stanley Hall was given the title of Professor of Psychology and Pedagogics by the trustees of Johns Hopkins University.

1954 — The first meeting of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The group's original name was the American Calvinistic Conference on Christianity, Psychology, and Psychiatry. The banquet fee for the first meeting was $1.75.

1956 — Jean Henri Fabre, a pioneer in ethology, was pictured on a postage stamp issued by France on this day.

1961 — The antidepressant drug Elavil (amitriptyline; Merck, Sharp, and Dohme) was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Amitriptyline is a tricyclic antidepressant, affecting neurotransmission by inhibiting reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin. Endep (Hoffman-LaRoche) is also amitriptyline and was approved by the FDA on May 12, 1975.

1970 — The drug Dalmane (flurazepam; Hoffman-LaRoche) was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Flurazepam is a benzodiazepine used as an antianxiety agent and as a sedative.

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