the cause of a disease

the philosophical study of causation

See Aetiology.

The science of causes. Same as tiology.

The science of causes, esp. of disease.

The science of the causes of a thing, especially of diseases.

The doctrine of causes, particularly with reference to diseases.

But if Providence does not act through secondary causes in this particular sphere of etiology, then why does Dr. Meigs take such pains to reason so extensively about the laws of contagion, which, on that supposition, have no more to do with this case than with the plague which destroyed the people after David had numbered them? – The Complete PG Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

Let it be well understood, that I claim no other merit than that of discussing these questions of etiology, in that order and with that common sense which fix ideas firmly in the mind- which, if I may use the term, photograph them on those parts of the brain allotted to the memory and judgment; also of drawing from known and admitted facts more rational and practical conclusions than those which have been current up to the present time. – On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment by Honoré Bourguignon