Person    | Male  Born 18/11/1828  Died 7/10/1896

Dr John Langdon Haydon Down

Categories: Medicine

Doctor specialising in mental illnesses who classified what is now called Down's Syndrome in 1862. We think the family used 'Langdon Down' as their surname.

Born Cornwall. Aged 18, he came to London to work for a surgeon. He was interested in a connection between ethnicity and mental health, hence the initial term 'Mongoloid' for Down's syndrome. More recently the term has been found offensive both to those with the syndrome and their families, and to the Mongol people so the term Down's Syndrome is preferred.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Dr John Langdon Haydon Down

Commemorated ati

Dr John Langdon Down

We could not get close enough to take easily legible photographs and initiall...

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Other Subjects

Downham Health Leisure Centre

Downham Health Leisure Centre

A community centre in the Borough of Lewisham, It contains a large swimming pool, gym, library and creche.

Place, Community / Clubs, Medicine

1 memorial
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

Founded as The Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children. Its first premises were at 49 Great Ormond Street a converted 17th cen...

Group, Children, Medicine

5 memorials
Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital

Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital

From AIM: "Medical students at St Bartholomew's Hospital are first recorded in 1662. The School and the Hospital were formally separated in 1921, when the School was incorporated with a new title,...

Building, Education, Medicine

1 memorial
Great Plague

Great Plague

Europe suffered a number of bubonic plaque epidemics from 1347 – 1750.  The last major outbreak in England was in 1665-6 and killed about 100,000 people, 20% of London’s population at the time.  It...

Event, Medicine, Tragedy

1 memorial
Dr Josiah Oldfield

Dr Josiah Oldfield

Lawyer, physician, and writer on health. And creator of hospitals - read on. Born Shrewsbury. At Oxford University he became a vegetarian and a friend of Gandhi. First qualified as a barrister and...

Person, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial