URTICARIA

(Lat.), n. f. U6rt(u<rt)-i2k(ek)-a(a8)'ri2-a3. From urtica, a nettle. Fr., urticaire, fievre ortiee porcelaine. Ger., Ne elau chlag, Ne elfriesel, Ne elfieber, Ne elsucht, Porcellanfriesel, Wiebelsucht. 1. Hives, nettle-rash; an acute or chronic disease of the skin characterized by an eruption of red, elevated, rounded efflorescences of irregular shape and size, which at a certain stage of their development appear blanched in the centre and erythematous at the periphery, being then commonly known as wheats. The eruption is attended with intense itching. It is usually transitory, though sometimes disposed to recur. The Url i car ice of Plenck correspond to u. febrilis. 2. Of Bazin and Auspitz, u. acuta, the chronic form being termed by them cnidosis. [G, 4, 26.] Giant u. Fr., urticaire ma ive. Of Milton, u. characterized by large oadematous swellings of the skin or of the mucous membrane of the tongue, throat, urethra, etc., which are rarely accompanied by change of color or itching and are evanescent. [" Edinb. Med. Jour.," cclviii, p. 513 (G).] Cf. U. cedematosa. Internal u. U. affecting the mucous membranes in the interior of the body. It is sometimes observed on the tongue, pharynx, or larynx, and inasmuch as attacks are sometimes a ociated with nausea and vomiting or with spasmodic dyspnoea, it is inferred that the stomach and air pa ages may also be subject to the lesions of the disease, and perhaps the mucous membranes of other regions. [G.] U. ab ingest is. U. provoked by the ingestion of certain articles of food. too; U2, blue; U3, lull; U4, full; U, urn; U8, like ii (German). [s. 681]