Crocodile tears
“ Shedding crocodile tears ” is a phrase that seeks to express a hypocritical display of sadness , sadness or compassion . The origin lies in an actual tear secretion that various species of crocodiles (including alligators and caimans ) secrete while eating and that has been interpreted as hypocrisy. After a fabulous performance, crocodiles lure their victims by crying like a child. In his historia naturalis , Pliny the Elder assumed that crocodiles wept after their victims, that is, feigned mourning for their prey. The medieval physiologus also handed down :
- The Physiologus says of the crocodile that it is an aquatic animal and it can be found in rivers and lakes. (...) If it takes hold of a person, it eats him up from the feet to the spine. But when it gets close to the head, it sits down and mourns it.
The actual cause of the tear formation is not yet clear. One hypothesis is that when the reptiles open their mouths very wide - as is the case when they eat - pressure is exerted on the lacrimal glands , which releases the tear fluid. Since the formation of foam between the eyelids of the animals is sometimes observed, the formation of tears could also be caused by the fact that air in the sinuses is mixed with the tear fluid from the lacrimal glands. It cannot be ruled out that tear formation is accompanied by a change in the mood of the animals while they are eating.
literature
- FA Bogorad: The symptom of crocodile tears. In: The Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. Volume 34, No. 1, 1979, pp. 74-79, doi: 10.1093 / jhmas / XXXIV.1.74
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Duden dictionary of origin
- ^ Physiologus - early Christian animal symbolism, Union Verlag Berlin 1981
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↑ D. Malcolm Shaner and Kent A. Vliet: Crocodile Tears: And thei eten hem wepynge. [“And they eat them weeping”] In: BioScience. Volume 57, No. 7, 2007, pp. 615–617, doi: 10.1641 / B570711
Crocodiles cry real tears. On: Wissenschaft.de from October 6, 2007