MASSAFRA 



MASS^NA 



83 



Massafra, a town of the Italian province of 

 Lecce, 11 miles l>y rail NVV. of Taranto. The 

 9463 inhabitants grow olives, wine, and fruits. 



Massage (Fr., 'kneading'] is tue term used in 

 medicine to denote a system of treatment in which 

 the manipulation and exercise of parts ( ' passive 

 movement') are employed for the relief of morbid 

 conditions. The term is used in an elastic sense, 

 and comprises a variety of forms of treatment ex- 

 truding in the one direction towards the composite 

 gymnastic exercises of Swedish origin (see SLOYD), 

 so useful in favouring a sound jmysical develop- 

 ment in children, and in the other towards the 

 jerking and wrenching movements, empirically 

 employed, and familiar in Great Britain under the 

 name of ' Ixmesetting.' For the most part, how- 

 ever, massage corresponds to the application of 

 kneading, stroking, and rubbing, separately or 

 combined with each other. 



Massage is as old as, if not older than, any 

 other form of medical treatment. Hippocrates 

 (600 B.C.), the 'Father of Medicine,' has left 

 in his writings a description of its application 

 and uses; observing that 'it loosens stiff joints 

 and gives tone and strength to those which are 

 relaxed;' further, that 'it must ! applied witli 

 soft hands and in all cases delicately. In the 

 Greek world, and also in the I Ionian (cf. Ly turn's 

 Lust DIIIJS of Pompeii), massage formed a iieces- 

 sary complement to the toilet of the bath ; but, 

 apart from the slaves who were specially trained 

 for such duties, there appears to have l>een a 

 regular profession of 'rubl>ers' comix-ting with, and 

 often superseding the physicians of the period. 

 The Chinese and the early races of India seem to 

 have known the value of massage from a remote 

 period, for it is frequently referred to in the ancient 

 writings of both |ieoples. During the dark ages 

 this method of treatment seems to have fallen into 

 disrepute in Europe ; and it is only within the 

 later half of the 19th century that its practice 

 has Ill-en thoroughly re-established, and that on 

 a scientific basis. It is largely due to Or Mexger, 

 a physician of Amsterdam, that massage has be- 

 come once more a systematised mode of medical 

 treatment. He began to treat sprains by this 

 method in 1853, and from that time to the pres- 

 ent his system has attracted much attention, and 

 lias spread widely over the European and American 

 continents. 



Two chief methods of application are employed : 



(1) Stroking, or rubbing with a gliding movement, 

 affecting chietly the superficial parts (efflcurage). 



(2) Pressing, tapping, or kneading, fleeting 

 chiefly the deeper tissues, and in one locality 

 at a time (tapotement). To these may lie added 

 an important combination of the two, viz. : (3) 

 Friction with kneading (/ittris.mgc), in which 

 the tissues are at the same time rublied longi- 

 tudinally and squeezed laterally, both super- 

 ficial and deeper tissues being thereby equally 

 affected. In applying these methods the hand and 

 fingers of the manipulator alone are used. As a 

 rule, if the hands are soft and moist no emollient 

 substance is n^mn'd, and the best effects are pro- 

 duced without such aid. In all cases the move- 

 ments follow a direction towards the trunk. In 

 stroking (ejfleurarje) the finger-tips pass first 

 lightly over the affected surface, followed by the 

 outspread palm of the hand, which exerts a slightly 

 firmer pressure. In tapping (tupotement) the 

 finger-tips, the knuckles, or the edges of the palm 

 are firmly thrust against the affected areas, so an 

 to act chiefly on the doe{>er tissues, by compressing 

 tlieiii firmly against the bony framework of the 

 part. In friction (pttrimiage) the tissues are 

 grasped and raised Imtween the lingers and thumbs, 

 and slightlyicompressed laterally as well as longi- 



tudinally as the manipulator's hands pass upwards 

 over the part. The total time taken up in the 

 application of one of these methods, or in a com- 

 bination of any of them, should not exceed twenty 

 niinutes, and as a rule one such stance is sufficient 

 in the twenty-four hours. 



The chief vital effects produced by massage are 

 soothing of pain bv reduction of the sensibility of 

 the nerves of the skin ; an acceleration in the cir- 

 culation both of blood and lymph in the parts 

 operated on ; and, as a result of this, increased 

 nutrition of healthy tissues and accelerated removal 

 of morbid products. General and local applications 

 of massage are practised in medicine ; the former 

 when some general corporeal effect is aimed at, 

 as in nervous emaciation, narcotic poisoning, and 

 in the treatment of the apparently drowned ; the 

 latter, in local injuries, as sprains and bruises, and 

 in local manifestations of constitutional conditions, 

 as rheumatic joint affections, neuralgia, tic, and 

 sciatica. In purely local joint and bone diseases 

 it is, however, as a rule, likely to do harm. 



See D. Graham, Afaaage ( New York, 1889 ) ; Eccles, 

 The Practice of Masaaye (~189U). 



Massa'geta*, a wild and warlike people, who 

 inhabited tlie broad steppes on the north-east of the 

 Caspian Sea, to the northward of the river Araxes 

 or Jaxartes. Herodotus says that they had a 

 community of wives ; that they sacrificed and 

 devoured their aged people ; that they worshipped 

 the sun, and offered horses to him ; that they lived 

 on the milk and flesh of their herds, and on fish, 

 and fought on horseback and on foot with lance, 

 liow, and double-edged axe. Cyrus is said to have 

 lost his life in fighting against tiiem, 530 B.C. 



Mussina, ANDR, Duke of Rivoli, Prince 

 of Essling, and the greatest of all Napoleon's 

 marshals, WHS born at Nice, it is said of Jewish 

 origin, 6th May 1758. He began life as a cabin - 

 lioy, and served fourteen years in the Sardinian 

 army, but left it because his plebeian birth pre- 

 cluded him from promotion. Early in the French 

 Revolution he joined a battalion of volunteers, and 

 rose rapidly in rank, Incoming in December 1793 

 a general of division. He distinguished himself 

 greatly in the campaigns in Upper Italy, especially 

 at Saorgio ( 1794), Loano ( 1795), and Kivoli ( 1797 ), 

 and earned from his chief his famous surname of 

 enfant clifri de la victoire. After Jourdan's defeat 

 at Stockach (25th March 1799) the chief command 

 of the army in Switzerland devolved upon him in 

 circumstances of great difficulty, but he kept his 

 ground against the Archduke Charles, and finally 

 by his crushing victory over SuvarofTs Russians at 

 Zurich (25th September 1799) freed France from 

 the danger of invasion. In 1804 Napoleon made 

 him a marshal of the empire, and next gave him 

 the command of the army of Italy. He kept the 

 Archduke Charles in check, crushed him at 

 Caldiero, and overran Naples. In 1807, after the 

 battle of Eylau, he commanded the right wing of 

 the French army, and at the end of the campaign 

 was created Duke of Kivoli. During the peace 

 he lost his left eye by accident at a hunting-party. 

 In the campaign of 1809 against Austria he com- 

 manded on the right bank of the Danube, and 

 covered himself with glory at Landshut, Eckmuhl, 

 and Ebersberg-on-Traun. On the second day of 

 the battle at Aspern or Essling (22d May), with 

 the most conspicuous bravery he covered the army 

 in its crossing the Danulie, and alone saved it from 

 destruction, earning for himself the title of Prince 

 of Essling. In 1810 he was sent to Spain to drive 

 the English into the sea, and he compelled Well- 

 ington t fall back upon his impregnable lines at 

 Tones Vedras. Finding it impossible to obtain any 

 advantage, and harassed by lack of supplies, he 



