Voting Station

John Langdon Down

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Doctor

The Resume

    (November 18, 1828-October 7, 1896)
    Born in Torpoint, England, United Kingdom
    Medical Superintendent of the Earlswood Asylum for Idiots (1858-68)
    Founded the Langdon Down Center (1868)
    Wrote 'Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots' (1866)
    Described the mental disorder now known as Down Syndrome

Why he might be annoying:

    In 'Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots,' he argued that mental disabilities in whites were throwbacks to more 'primitive' races.
    He called Down Syndrome 'Mongolian Idiocy,' even though the only physical similarity to Asians is that a minority of Down sufferers develop an epicanthic fold (a characteristic feature of Oriental eyes).
    A group of leading geneticists wrote to the medical journal 'The Lancet' urging that 'Mongolian idiocy' be dropped as a 'misleading' and 'embarrassing' term (1961).
    The World Health Organization officially dropped references to Mongolian idiocy at the request of the delegate from Mongolia (1965).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a pioneer in education for the mentally handicapped.
    He defended higher education for women and, going against prevailing Victorian medical opinions, denied it would make them more liable to produced feeble-minded children.
    His grandson, born in 1905, had Down Syndrome.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 39 Votes: 23.08% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 22 Votes: 68.18% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 36 Votes: 44.44% Annoying