Ptosis is the lagging of an eyelid. It has 2 distinct etiologies. Sympathetics going to the eye innervate Muller's muscle, a small muscle that elevates the eyelid. The III cranial nerve also innervates a much larger muscle that elevates the eye lid: the levator palpebrae. Thus, disruption of either will cause ptosis. The ptosis from a III nerve palsy is of greater severity than the ptosis due to a lesion of the sympathetic pathway, due to the size of the muscles innervated.