Mongolism is a condition recognizable at birth; it is characterized by generalized skeletal somatic and by mental retardation.
While Sequin, of France, and Lombroso,1 of Italy, mentioned this condition in some early articles, it remained for Down,2 in 1866, to describe mongolism; he gave it this name because the features of the patients resemble those of the Kalmuc and Tartar tribes.
Muir,3 in 1903, mentioned two German and five American references and stated that mongolism seemed to be confined to the Caucasian race. This view was generally accepted until about 1922, when reports were published of mongolism in Chinese children by Demuth4 and Trumpeer.5 Since that time many cases of mongolism have been reported as occurring in Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Hindus, Negroes, American Indians6 and others.
Cases have been reported from almost every country of the world. The condition seems to be universal as