The management of and attitudes toward children and adults with Down syndrome have undergone considerable changes in the course of the condi tion's long history (Zellweger, 1977, 1981, Zellweger & Patil, 1987). J. E. D. Esquirol (1838) and E. Seguin (1846) were probably the first physicians to witness the condition without using currently accepted diagnostic designa tions. Seguin coined the terms furfuraceus or lowland cretinism in contradis tinction to the goiterous cretinism endemic at that time in the Swiss Alps. Esquirol, as well as Seguin, had a positive attitude toward persons who were...