The story told is that in 1846, an English schoolboy by the name of John Langdon Down was out in the countryside with his family when they were caught in a sudden downpour. They sought shelter in a nearby farm where a girl with a rather unusual face offered them tea.

The young John Down was intrigued by her looks and wondered if she might have a disease. Piqued, he resolved to study medicine and became a doctor who later took charge of the so-called "Asylum for Idiots" in Surrey, the first such establishment to cater for people with developmental disabilities.