Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
In their article, on the static treatment of paralytic lagophthalmos with autogenous tissues, Dr Pirrello et al. [1] state: “The word lagophthalmos derives from the Greek terms λαγος (hare) and οφταλμος (eye). It is a condition in which the eyelids are unable to close the palpebral aperture completely and cover the whole eye. Hares in fact sleep with their eyes open.” This statement requires some etymologic remarks.
The belief that hares sleep with their eyes open can be found in the literature ever since the ancient Greek and Roman societies [2, 3]. For a long time the hare’s habits were hardly known. The hare was a mysterious creature and became the subject to much folklore [2, 4–6]. Nowadays, however, many of the mysteries about the hare are disproved as we are now better able to observe hares with our modern filming techniques [2]. We now know that hares are able to close their eyes and that they do not sleep with their eyes open (Fig. 1) [2, 6, 7].
A hare with its eye closed (with permission from Mason [7])
One of the first to use the medical term lagophthalmos was the Roman encyclopaedist Aulus Cornelius Celsus (ca. 30 BC to ca. 45 AD) [8, 9]. Celsus defined lagophthalmos as a shortening of solely the upper eyelid, in contrast to ectropion, which he defined as a shortening of the lower eyelid [8, 10]. It is interesting to notice that ever since its first use there seems to have been no consensus on whether lagophthalmos should be defined as an affection of the upper eyelid, the lower eyelid, or both. Moreover, the terms lagophthalmos and ectropion were mixed up [11].
Today, there finally seems to be consensus. Lagophthalmos is defined as the inability to close the eyelids [1]. The current definition is based on the ancient belief that hares sleep with their eyes open. However, from a biological point of view this definition is astonishing, since now we designate patients who are unable to close their eyes as having hare eyes, while hares in fact sleep with their eyes closed.
References
Pirrello R, D’Arpa S, Moschella F (2007) Static treatment of paralytic lagophthalmos with autogenous tissues. Aesth Plast Surg 31:725–731
Phillips AA, Willcock MM (1999) Xenophon & Arrian on hunting with hounds. Aris & Phillips Ltd, Warminster, England
Scholfield AF (1971) Aelian on the characteristics of animals. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Evans GD, Thomson D (2002) The leaping hare. Faber and Faber Ltd, London, England
Grzimek B (1973) Het leven der dieren, encyclopedie van het dierenrijk. Uitgeverij Het Spectrum B.V., Utrecht, The Netherlands
Huber J (2004) Heer Lampe, De Europese Haas in Nederland. Koninklijke Vermande, The Hague, The Netherlands
Mason J (2005) The Hare. Merlin Unwin Books, Ludlow, Shropshire, UK
Blodi FC (1982) Julius Hirschberg, The History of Ophthalmology. J.P.Wayenborgh Verlag, Bonn, Germany
Hirschberg J (1887) Wörterbuch der Augenheilkunde. Verlag von Veit & Comp., Leipzig, Germany
Spencer WG (1971) Celsus, De Medicina. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Von Ammon FA (1831) Observations on Lagophthalmos and Ectropium from caries of the margin of the orbit, and Synechia thence arising. Maryland Med Rec 2:181–187
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Van de Graaf, R.C., IJpma, F.F.A. & Nicolai, JP.A. Lagophthalmos or Hare Eye: An Etymologic Eye Opener. Aesth Plast Surg 32, 573–574 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-008-9133-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-008-9133-y