Day 10 - John Langdon Down

Sydney Hodges, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Langdon Down worked as the director of the largest “asylum for Idiots” in London during the mid nineteenth century. Down noted the similarities between the physical appearance of a group of persons with disabilities. He photographed and described this group of individuals as mongoloid “idiots.” Today, persons within this group are referred to as having Down’s Syndrome. Down was the first to describe the condition of Down’s Syndrome.

Reference:

Van Robays, J. (2016, June 30). John Langdon Down (1828 - 1896). Facts, views & vision in ObGyn. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5130304/.