Records about the existence of Down's syndrome date back to the Saxons, from whom we have anecdotal reports of the disorder. The first medical report of the condition was not published, however, until 1866. In that year, the British physician, J. Langdon Down (1828-1896) wrote a paper dealing with "Ethnic classification of idiots." In this paper, Down described children with the disorder as "representative[s] of the great mongolian race: when placed side by side," he continued, "it is difficult to believe that the specimens compared are not children of [Mongols]." Down based his comparison on the presence of vertical folds of skin above a patient's eyelids, giving him or her an Oriental appearance. Edouard Séguin's (1812-1880) text on Idiocy and Its Treatment by Physiological Means, published in the same year, also carried a detailed discussion of the disorder, then known as mongolism. The preferred...