Med. [med.L. carus, L. caros, a. Gr. κάρος heavy sleep, torpor.] A term applied to various forms of profound sleep or insensibility; esp. ‘the fourth and extremest degree of insensibility, the others being sopor, coma, and lethargy’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1678. Phillips, Caros, a disease in the Head which is caused by an over full stomach and want of concoction. Ibid. (1696), Caros, or Carus, a Sleep wherein the person affected being pull’d, pinch’d and call’d, scarce shews any sign of hearing or feeling.
1782. Heberden, Comm., lxix. (1806), 340. Paralytic debility of the senses and intellect … as carus, coma, lethargy.
