Famous Britons: John Langdon Down and His Work with the “Sun Children” Part I

Dear friends of Training Centre Raya London, today we are going to tell you about a man whose research, observations, and analyses of mental and genetic diseases (which were not called genetic at the time) have significantly contributed to today’s science and to patients with certain conditions, as well as to the humane treatment of those suffering from various syndromes and mental disorders.

The institutions where “mad people” were literally locked up in England in the 19th century were no good places to be! The treatment of the sick there was appalling, the experiments with their treatment were definitely inhumane, and they often even served as a place to isolate inconvenient people, who had been falsely accused of having mental illnesses by their relatives.

Dr. John Langdon Down and his wife Mary Crellin brought about a revolutionary transformation in these practices. But let us tell you more!

John Langdon Down, born in 1828 in Torpoint, Cornwall, was of Irish-English descent. From an early age, he showed an interest in the exact sciences. At the age of 14, he became an apprentice to a pharmacist and began gaining knowledge of diseases and their treatment. In 1846, the future doctor encountered a girl, who had a condition that is now known as Down Syndrome. This sparked his interest in medicine even more, and he became an apprentice to a surgeon in the Whitechapel district of London. There, he carried out the medical practices of the time, such as bloodletting and tooth extraction. Later, driven by his interests, he moved to the pharmaceutical scientific laboratory in Bloomsbury Square and won an award in organic chemistry for his work. For a short time, he assisted Michael Faraday in his study of the properties of gases.

John had clear plans for the future. In 1853, he began training at the Royal London Hospital under the guidance of Dr. William John Little, after whom Little’s Disease, a form of cerebral palsy, was named. John Langdon graduated with a gold medal and began two specializations—as a pharmacist and as a surgeon. To avoid spending more than required, the young doctor lived with his sister and her husband and this was how he met his brother-in-law’s sister, Mary Crellin. She became his wife and like-minded partner, making an enormous practical contribution to his research and to improving the treatment methods for the mentally ill and challenged people.

Dr. John Langdon Down devoted his entire life and efforts to medical science, and as a man of great merit, he was appointed administrator and chief attending physician at the hospital for people with mental disorders in Surrey—Earlswood Asylum, where he remained for the next 10 years of his life.

Author: Iveta Radeva