Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. Causality (but not causation) denotes a necessary relationship between one event (called cause and another event (called effect) which is the direct consequence Derived from the Greek αιτιολογία, "giving a reason for" (αἰτία "cause" + -λογία). The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c ^[1]

The word is most commonly used in medical and philosophical theories, where it is used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act, and is used in philosophy, physics, psychology, government, and medicine, and biology in reference to the causes of various phenomena. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles An etiological myth is a myth intended to explain a name or create a mythic history for a place or family. The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore"

Medicine

In medicine in particular, the term refers to the causes of diseases or pathologies. A disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions and can be deadly Pathology (from Greek grc πάθος pathos, "fate harm" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study and ^[2] The study of etiology in medicine dates back to Muslim physicians in the medieval Islamic world, who discovered the contagious nature of infectious diseases such as scabies, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted disease. An infectious disease is a clinically evident Disease resulting from the presence of Pathogenic microbial agents including Pathogenic viruses Pathogenic Scabies is a transmissible ectoparasite Skin Infection characterized by superficial Burrows intense pruritus (itching and Secondary Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common A sexually transmitted disease ( STD) or venereal disease ( VD) is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between Humans In The Canon of Medicine, Avicenna discovered that they are caused by contagion that can spread through bodily contact or through water and soil. The Canon of Medicine ( Arabic: القانون في الطب Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb " The Law of Medicine " Persian TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born Water is a common Chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of Life. Soil, often typeset as SOiL, is a four piece rock band from Chicago Illinois United States founded by Shaun Glass Tom Schofield Tim King and Adam Zadel ^[3] He also stated that bodily secretion is contaminated by foul foreign earthly bodies before being infected. Secretion is the process of segregating elaborating and releasing chemicals from a cell, or a secreted Chemical substance or amount of substance ^[4]

Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) was the first physician to provide a scientific etiology for the inflammatory diseases of the ear, and the first to clearly discuss the causes of stridor. Abū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr ( أبو مروان عبد الملك بن زهر) (also known as Ibn Zuhr, Avenzoar, Abumeron or Ibn-Zohr Inflammation ( Latin, inflamatio, to set on fire is the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli such as Pathogens The ear is the sense organ that detects Sounds The Vertebrate ear shows a common biology from Fish to Humans with variations Stridor is a high pitched sound resulting from turbulent air flow in the upper airway ^[5] Through his dissections, he proved that the skin disease scabies was caused by a parasite, a discovery which upset the Galenic theory of humorism, and he was able to successfully remove the parasite from a patient's body without any purging or bleeding. Dissection (also called anatomization) is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the function In Medicine, a dermatosis is a generic term for disease of the skin. Scabies is a transmissible ectoparasite Skin Infection characterized by superficial Burrows intense pruritus (itching and Secondary Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between Organisms of different Species. Galen ( Greek: Γαληνός Galēnos; Latin: Claudius Galenus, Aelius Galenus, Claudius Aelius Galenus, or Humorism, or humoralism, was a theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging / haemorrhaging (see American and British spelling differences) is the loss of Blood from ^[6]

When the Black Death bubonic plague reached al-Andalus in the 14th century, Ibn Khatima posited that infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms which enter the human body. The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest Pandemics in human history widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia Bubonic plague is the best-known manifestation of the bacterial disease plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (formerly known as Al-Andalus (الأندلس was the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims or An infectious disease is a clinically evident Disease resulting from the presence of Pathogenic microbial agents including Pathogenic viruses Pathogenic A microorganism (also spelled micro organism or micro-organism and also called a microbe) is an Organism that is Microscopic (usually Another Andalusian physician, Ibn al-Khatib (1313-1374), wrote a treatise called On the Plague, stating that contagion can spread through garments, vessels and earrings. Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib or Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani (1313 (in Loja near Granada) -1374 (in Fez) was a Clothing (also called clothes, accoutrements, accouterments, or habiliments) protects the Human body from extreme Weather Earrings are jewelry attached to the ear through a piercing in the Earlobe or some other external part of the ear (except in the case of clip earrings ^[4]

Etiological discovery in medicine has a history in Robert Koch's demonstration that the tubercle bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex) causes the disease tuberculosis, Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax, and Vibrio cholerae causes cholera. Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( December 11 1843 – May 27 1910) was a German Physician. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the Bacterium that causes most cases of Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common Bacillus anthracis is a Gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped Bacterium of the genus Bacillus. Anthrax is an acute Disease in humans and animals caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis which is highly lethal in some forms Vibrio cholerae (also Kommabacillus) is a Gram negative curved-rod shaped Bacterium with a polar Flagella that causes Cholera Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera, is an infectious Gastroenteritis caused by the Bacterium This line of thinking and evidence is summarized in Koch's postulates. Koch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causal relationship between a causative Microbe and a Disease. But proof of causation in infectious diseases is limited to individual cases that provide experimental evidence of etiology.

In epidemiology, several lines of evidence together are required to infer causation. Sir Austin Bradford-Hill demonstrated a causal relationship between smoking and lung cancer, and summarized the line of reasoning in the epidemiological criteria for causation. Dr. Al Evans, a US epidemiologist, synthesized his predecessors' ideas in proposing the Unified Concept of Causation. Alfred Hubert Evans ( September 28, 1916 - April 6, 1979) was a Major League Baseball Catcher and a Minor League

Further thinking in epidemiology was required to distinguish causation from association or statistical correlation. Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the Health and Illness of populations and serves as the foundation and Logic of interventions made in the Correlation does not imply causation is a phrase used in the Sciences and Statistics to emphasize that Correlation between two variables does not imply Events may occur together simply due to chance, bias or confounding, instead of one event being caused by the other. Bias is a term used to describe a Tendency or Preference towards a particular perspective, Ideology or result especially when the tendency interferes In statistics a confounding variable (also confounding factor, lurking variable, a confound, or confounder) is an Extraneous variable It is also important to know which event is the cause. Careful sampling and measurement are more important than sophisticated statistical analysis to determine causation. Experimental evidence, involving interventions (providing or removing the supposed cause), gives the most compelling evidence of etiology.

Etiology is sometimes a part of a chain of causation. An etiological agent of disease may require an independent co-factor, and be subject to a promoter (increases expression) to cause disease. An example of all the above, which was recognized late, is that peptic ulcer disease may be induced by stress, requires the presence of acid secretion in the stomach, and has primary etiology in Helicobacter pylori infection. A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is an Ulcer (defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0 Helicobacter pylori ( is a Gram-negative, microaerophilic Bacterium that inhabits various areas of the stomach and Duodenum. Many chronic diseases of unknown cause may be studied in this framework to explain multiple epidemiological associations or risk factors which may or may not be causally related, and to seek the actual etiology.

Some diseases, such as diabetes or hepatitis, are syndromically defined, by their signs and symptoms, but include different conditions with different etiologies. Diabetes mellitus (ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz or /ˌdaɪəˈbiːtəs/ /məˈlaɪtəs/ or /ˈmɛlətəs/ often referred to simply as diabetes ( Ancient Greek: grc Hepatitis (plural hepatitides) implies injury to the Liver characterized by the presence of Inflammatory cells in the tissue of A symptom' (from Greek σύμπτωμα, "accident misfortune that which befalls" from συμπίπτω, "I befall" from Conversely, one etiology, such as Epstein-Barr virus, may in different circumstances produce different diseases, such as mononucleosis, or nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or Burkitt's lymphoma. The Epstein-Barr Virus ( EBV) also called Human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4 is a Virus of the herpes family (which includes Herpes Infectious mononucleosis, also known as Pfeiffer's disease, mono (in The United States of America) and more commonly known as glandular Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC is a Cancer originating in the Nasopharynx, the uppermost region of the Pharynx or "throat" where the nasal Burkitt lymphoma (or "Burkitt's tumor" or "Malignant lymphoma Burkitt's type" is a cancer of the lymphatic system (in particular B lymphocytes

Mythology

An etiological myth is a myth intended to explain the origins of cult practices, natural phenomena, proper names and the like. The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" For example, the name Delphi and its associated deity, Apollon Delphinios, are explained in the Homeric Hymn which tells of how Apollo carried Cretans over the sea in the shape of a dolphin (delphus) to make them his priests. Delphi ( Greek,) ( pronounce and dialectal forms) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western The thirty-three anonymous Homeric Hymns celebrating individual gods are a collection of ancient Greek Hymns "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the Crete ( Greek: Κρήτη transliteration: Krētē, modern transliteration Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the Dolphins are Marine mammals that are closely related to Whales and Porpoises There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera. While Delphi is actually related to the word delphus ("womb"), many etiological myths are similarly based on folk etymology (the term "Amazon", for example). Folk etymology is a term used in two distinct ways A commonly held misunderstanding of the origin of a particular word a False etymology. The Amazons (in Greek, grc Ἀμαζόνες are a nation of all-female warriors in Classical and Greek mythology, who were possibly historical In the Aeneid (published circa 17 BC), Vergil claims the descent of Augustus Caesar's Julian clan from the hero Aeneas through his son Ascanius, also called Julus. For the group of nine Ancient Egyptian deities see Ennead. The Aeneid (əˈniːɪd in Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or Augustus ( Latin: IMPERATOR·CAESAR·DIVI·FILIVS·AVGVSTVS September 23 63 BC – August 19 AD 14) born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was This article is about the Roman hero For other uses see Aeneas (disambiguation. Other examples of etiological myth come from the Bible, such as the setting of the rainbow in the heavens as a sign of God's covenant with Noah (Genesis 9); or the story of Lot's wife in Genesis 19 (specifically 26), which explains why there are pillars of salt in the area of the Dead Sea. A covenant, in its most general sense is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action Noah (or Noe, Noach;; Nūḥ; Arabic: نوح; "Rest") was according to the Bible, the tenth and last of According to the Bible and the Quran, Lot ( Arabic: لوط, Lūṭ |; "Hidden covered" was the Nephew The Dead Sea (יָם הַ‏‏מֶ‏ּ‏לַ‏ח, "Sea of Salt"البَحْر المَيّت, "Dead Sea" is a salt lake between ^[7] The story of Prometheus' sacrifice-trick in Hesiod's Theogony relates how Prometheus tricked Zeus into choosing the bones and fat of the first sacrificial animal rather than the meat to justify why, after a sacrifice, the Greeks offered the bones wrapped in fat to the gods while keeping the meat for themselves. In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Προμηθεύς "forethought" is a Titan known for his wily intelligence who stole Fire from Zeus Hesiod ( Greek: Hesiodos) was an early Greek Poet and Rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BCE Theogony ( Greek: Θεογονία theogonia = the birth of God(s is a Poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies Zeus (zjuːs in Greek: nominative: Zeús /zdeús/ genitive: Diós; Modern Greek /'zefs/ in Greek mythology

See also

• Eschatology
• Geomythology
• Just-so story (comparable to etiological myth)

References

External links