Indeed, it is said to produce narcotism in some cases.

How does a patient breathe when moribund from simple exhaustion, and how does such respiration differ from the toil and struggle of asthma or the stertor of narcotism?

Stertorous respiration is familiar in apoplectic coma, as well as in that of brain compression from injury or from opium or alcoholic narcotism.

Coma, or stupor, is met with chiefly in the following morbid states: severe typhus or typhoid fevers; malignant scarlet fever; small-pox; rarely in measles; pernicious malarial fever; ur�mia; apoplexy; opiate narcotism, or that from chloral or alcoholic intoxication; asphyxia from inhaling carbonic acid gas, ether, chloroform, etc.; fracture of the skull with compression of the brain.

Slowness, in marked degree, attends apoplexy, opium narcotism, and fracture of the skull compressing the brain.