John Langdon Down

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John Langdon Down

John Langdon Haydon Down , changed from him to John Haydon Langdon Down in 1868 (born November 18, 1828 in Torpoint , Cornwall , † October 7, 1896 in Normansfield Hospital , Teddington ), was a British doctor .

The first descriptions of Williams-Beuren syndrome , Prader-Willi syndrome and Down syndrome named after him (trisomy 21) go back to him. He first described the latter in 1866 from a scientifically oriented point of view and distinguished it from other forms of intellectual disability .

Life

Down, the son of a pharmacist, began studying medicine at the Royal London Hospital in 1853 . He dealt with people with disabilities from an early age and from 1858 to 1868 headed the Royal Earlswood Hospital in Redhill , which primarily housed people with intellectual disabilities. He noticed the typical symptoms of trisomy 21, which he himself first referred to as mongoloid idiocy ("Mongolian type of idiocy"). From 1868 he built a home for the mentally handicapped in Normansfield, where great emphasis was placed on the promotion and employment of the 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 was also named John after his grandfather, had Down syndrome.

Fonts

  • Observations on an ethnic classification of idiots . In: London Hospital Clinical Lecture Reports . tape 3 , 1866, pp. 259-262 ( online [accessed April 10, 2010]).
  • On the education and training of the feeble in at least London 1876.

literature

  • Norbert Pies: Pioneer of Social Pediatrics - John Langdon Haydon Langdon-Down (1828-1896). An illustrated biography with a translation of the Lettsomian Lecture (London 1887) . Braun, Karlsruhe 1996, ISBN 3-7650-1739-6 .
  • Bettina A. Bryan: Down, John Langdon Haydon. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 322.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ badische-zeitung.de , November 11, 2016, Ulrich Traub: A wedding dress without armholes: Down syndrome as the subject of a cultural and historical exhibition (November 13, 2016)
  2. ↑ A fame only in name BBC News (English)
personal data
SURNAME Down, John Langdon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Down, John Langdon Haydon; Down, John Haydon Langdon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British doctor specializing in neurology; Name giver for Down syndrome
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Torpoint
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1896
Place of death Normansfield