John Langdon-Down

John Langdon Haydon Langdon - Down ( born November 18, 1828 in Torpoint, Cornwall, † October 7, 1896 in Norman Field Hospital, Teddington ) was a British chemist and physician with the Department of Neurology.

Go back, among other things, the first descriptions of the Williams -Beuren syndrome, Prader -Willi syndrome and named after him Down syndrome ( trisomy 21 ) on it. The latter he described in 1866 for the first time under scientifically oriented points and bordered it on other then-known forms of disability.

Life

Langdon - Down, son of a pharmacist began in 1853 to study medicine at the Royal London Hospital. He dealt early on with people with disabilities and led from 1858 to 1868, the Royal Earlswood Hospital, where primarily people living with intellectual disabilities. The typical symptoms of trisomy 21 he noticed that he himself first called the mongoloid idiocy. From the year 1868 he built in Norman Field on a home for mentally handicapped people, was placed in the great emphasis on the training and employment of residents. After his death, the home was continued by his sons.

A grandson of John Langdon - Downs, who was born nine years after his death and after his grandfather also called John, had Down syndrome.

Writings

• Observations on to ethnic classification of idiots. In: London Hospital Reports. Vol 3, 1866, pp. 259-262 (online, accessed 10 April 2010 ).