Waters of oblivion

The phrase 'putting to sleep' has different connotations in an operating theatre and in a veterinary surgery, one temporary and the other permanent. For both purposes the same chemical agent, a narcotic, may be used - a low dose to induce sleep, a large dose to cause death. The word narcosis means a state of unconsciousness produced by narcotic drugs. Narcotics get their name from the Greek narkoum, meaning to make numb. Narcolepsy is a condition where people have an extreme tendency to fall asleep and its name comes from the Greek words narke, meaning stupor, and lepsis, which means an attack. Stupor, as in he fell into a drunken stupor, comes from the Latin word stupere, which means to be stunned or made numb, and is the root of stupid.