Ɛpsilon

From J. L. H. Down   18 December 1873

39, Welbeck Street, | Cavendish Square. W.

18. 12. 73

Dear Sir,

I have recently had a case under my care which I think will interest you. The subject was a Microcephalic Idiot of about 4 years of age— The cause was said, by several Physicians who had seen the child, to have been synostosis of the sutures—1

I, however, said that the cases of Microcephalism which had come under my notice & which I had been able to examine after death had existed with perfect sutures & in fact with the Medio-frontal existing, which usually disappears during fœtal life:2 I regarded this boy as coming under the same category and that the cause was developmental—

The interest about the case is mainly the condition of his ears which had the rudimentary lobe well developed as figured in your last work.3 The right pinna was especially well marked and that I have preserved— Moreover, this condition of ear was associated with a well marked transverse perpendicular fissure which Vogt says is never met with in Idiots.4 My experience is quite contrary to Vogt. On one side the Occipital lobe is completely cut off from the rest of the cerebrum by a deep sulcus such as one meets with in Anthropoid Apes—

I have preserved the encephalon & medulla spinalis, right pinna and sacrum with coxcyx.5

I am, dear Sir, | Yours truly | J. Langdon Down M.D.

1
Synostosis is a premature fusion of the sutures (the fibres that separate the free-floating bones of the skull), restricting brain development.
2
In humans, the medio-frontal (metopic) suture is the sutural junction between the two elements of the frontal bone of the skull at birth. The suture usually begins to close within months of birth.
3
Down refers to the ‘Woolnerian tip’; see Descent 1: 22, fig. 2.
4
For Carl Vogt’s conclusions regarding the development of the brain in microcephalic idiots, see Vogt 1867, pp. 197–200. The term ‘idiot’ referred to a person so profoundly disabled in mental function or intellect as to be incapable of ordinary acts of reasoning or rational conduct; specifically, a person permanently so affected, as distinguished from one with a temporary severe mental illness (OED).
5
Down refers to the brain, spinal cord, right outer ear, large bone at the base of the spine, and tailbone, respectively.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9191,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9191