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Robert H. Wilkins, MD; Irwin A. Brody, MD

Arch Neurol. 1969;20(1):103-104.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

OUR KNOWLEDGE of the amaurotic family idiocies, and especially of Tay-Sachs' disease, has increased during the years in stepwise fashion.^1,2

In 1881, Waren Tay, an English ophthalmologist, first described the macular changes that were subsequently associated with this condition.³ Tay later described similar changes in two siblings of the infant first reported.⁴ Then in 1887, Bernard Sachs, a neurologist in New York, published the original clinical and pathological description of the disease.⁵ In studying additional cases, he noted the familial nature of the condition, which he called amaurotic family idiocy.^6-8 Other physicians published case reports, and Tay-Sachs' disease was established as an entity. Subsequently, this fatal disorder was found to be an autosomal recessive trait, occurring primarily, but not exclusively, in Jewish families from eastern Europe.^2,9

Early in the twentieth century, other types of cerebroretinal degeneration were described in older patients by . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Durham, NC

From the Divisions of Neurosurgery and Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, and the Durham Veterans Administration Hospital, Durham, NC.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Jan 24, 1968; accepted Feb 19.

Reprint requests to Division of Neurosurgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27706 (Dr. Wilkins).

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