The history of Down Syndrome

Unfortunately the history of Down Syndrome is not very pretty or respectable. In the 1800’s little was known about Down Syndrome and a lot of people were admitted to hospitals where they lived out their then, short lives. It wasn’t until 1866 when John Langdon Down discovered the link of Down Syndrome to intellectual impairment. He began to use the term mongoloid, comparing the facial features of Down Syndrome with people from Mongolia. In 1959 a French physician Dr Jerome Lejeune changed the world forever when he discovered that Down Syndrome was a chromosomal abnormality. Further research revealed they indeed had 47 chromosomes instead of 46. It was later discovered that chromosome 21 was responsible for this defect and so became Trisomy 21.

Information credited to: http://downsyndrome.com/history-of-down-syndrome/

Dayna.