In 1881, British ophthalmologist Warren Tay published his groundbreaking observation of a cherry-red spot on the retina of a child suffering from a neurological disorder.
Term first used in 1887 by Bernard Sachs in a paper on “arrested development with special reference to its cortical pathology.” Sachs described the fundus of a child with “amaurotic familial idiocy,”
The condition was later identified as Tay-Sachs disease.
Herman Joseph Knapp:
An ophthalmologist who first used the term “cherry red color” at an ophthalmology meeting in Heidelberg.
Initially thought the finding was benign but later recognized its serious implications.
