Obs. rare. [ad. Gr. ἀναλογισμ-ός proportionate calculation, f. ἀναλογίζ-εσθαι f. ἀνάλογος: see ANALOGON, and -ISM.]
1. Math. The constitution of a proportion.
1656. Hobbes, Philos., II. xiii. § 4. Eng. Wks. I. 146. When four magnitudes are to one another in geometrical proportion, they are called proportionals; and by some more briefly, analogism.
1677. Baker, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 29. I work all … by analogism, bringing them to be wrought geometrically, he only arithmetically.
2. ‘An argument from the cause to the effect,’ J.; à priori reasoning.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Analogism, a forcible argument, from the Cause to the Effect, implying an unanswerable necessity. [Whence in Phillips, Bailey, Johnson, etc.]
3. Med. The judgment of diseases by similar appearances; diagnosis by analogy.
1706. Phillips, Analogism, In the Art of Physick, a Comparison of Causes relating to a Disease.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., A discourse on the Analogism of fevers.
