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 general history was that of J. G. Palfrey, History of New England (5 vols., Boston, 1858–1890), to the War of Independence. It is generally accurate in facts but written in an unsatisfactorily eulogistic vein. Of importance in more modern views is a volume of Lectures Delivered before the Lowell Institute  by Members of the Massachusetts Historical Society on Subjects Relating to the Early History of Massachusetts (Boston, 1869), perhaps especially the lectures of G. E. Ellis, later expanded, and in the process somewhat weakened, into his Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1629–1685 (Boston, 1888; 3rd ed., 1891). See C. F. Adams, Massachusetts: its Historians and its History (Boston, 1893), for a critique of the “filiopietistic” traditions of Massachusetts writers; also his Three Episodes of Massachusetts History,—namely, Settlement of the Colony, Antinomianism, and church and town government in Quincy from 1634–1888 (2 vols., Boston, 1892). On town government see further E. Channing in Johns Hopkins University, Studies in History vol. ii. (1884); P. E. Aldrich in American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, new series, vol. 3, pp. 111–124; and C. F. Adams and others in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2nd series, vol. vii (1892). On the Pilgrims and Puritans: See article ; also E. H. Byington, The Puritan in England and America (Boston, 1896) and The Puritan as Colonist and Reformer (Boston, 1899). On the Quaker Persecution: R. P. Hallowell, The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts (Boston, 1883; rev. ed., 1887). On Witchcraft: See C. W. Upham, Witchcraft in Salem (2 vols., Boston, 1867); S. G. Drake, Annals of Witchcraft (Boston, 1869) and The Witchcraft Delusion in New England (3 vols., Roxbury, 1866), this last a reprint of accounts of the time by Cotton Mather and R. Calef; W. F. Poole, “Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft” (North American Review, April 1869); and controversy of A. C. Goodell and G. H. Moore in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings. On Slavery: G. H. Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery (New York, 1866); E. Washburn in Collections, Massachusetts Historical Society, series 4, iv., 333–346; C. Deane in same, pp. 375–442, and in Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society, new series, iv., 191–222. In the essays of J. R. Lowell are two on “New England two Centuries Ago” and “Witchcraft.” For economic history, W. B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, 1620–1789 (2 vols., Boston, 1890); C. H. J. Douglas, The Financial History of Massachusetts to the American Revolution (in Columbia University Studies, vol i., 1892). On the revolutionary epoch, Mellen Chamberlain, John Adams with other Essays and Addresses (Boston, 1898); T. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters (2 vols., Boston, 1884–1886); H. A. Cushing, Transition from Provincial to Commonwealth Government in Massachusetts (Columbia University Studies in History, vol. iii., 1896); S. B. Harding, Contest over the Ratification of the Federal Constitution in Massachusetts (Harvard University Studies, New York, 1896); and on the Shays Rebellion compare J. P. Warren in American Historical Review (Oct., 1905). On New England discontent preceding 1812, Henry Adams, Documents Relating to New England Federalism, 1780–1815 (Boston, 1877); T. W. Higginson, Massachusetts in the Army and Navy during the War of 1861–65 (Official, Boston, 2 vols., 1896). For a list of the historical societies of the state consult A. M. Davis in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. i.; the most important are the Massachusetts Historical Society, established 1791, publishing Collections and Proceedings (Boston) and the American Antiquarian Society, established 1812, publishing Proceedings (Worcester). In many cases the most valuable material on various periods is indicated under the biographies (or autobiographies in some cases) of the public men named in the above article, to which add Timothy Pickering, George Cabot, Joseph Warren, Elbridge Gerry, Benjamin F. Butler, G. S. Boutwell and George F. Hoar. Many townships have published their local records, and many township and county histories contain valuable matter of general interest (e.g. as showing in detail township action before the War of Independence), though generally weighted heavily with genealogy and matters of merely local interest. In American works of fiction, particularly of New England authors, the reader will find a wealth of description of Massachusetts and New England life, past and present, as in the writings of William D. Howells, Sarah O. Jewett, Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman, Harriet B. Stowe and others.

MASSACRE, a wholesale indiscriminate killing of persons, and also, in a transferred sense, of animals. The word is adopted from the French; but its origin is obscure. The meaning and the old form macecle seem to point to it being a corruption of the Lat. macellum, butcher’s shop or shambles, hence meat market; this is probably from the root mac-, seen in  , to fight, , sword, and Lat. mactare, to sacrifice. Another derivation connects with the Old Low Ger. matsken, to cut in pieces; cf. mod. Ger. metzeln, to massacre.

MASSAGE. The word massage has of late years come into general use to signify the method of treating disease or other physical conditions by manipulating the muscles and joints. According to Littré the word is derived from the Arabic mass, and has the specific meaning of “pressing the muscular parts of the body with the hands, and exercising traction on the joints in order to give suppleness and stimulate vitality.” It was probably adopted from the Arabian physicians by the French, who have played a leading part in reviving this method of treatment, which has been practised from time immemorial, and by the most primitive people, but has from time to time fallen into disuse among Western nations. In the Odyssey the women are described as rubbing and kneading the heroes on their return from battle. In India, under the name “shampoo” (tshāmpuā), the same process has formed part of the native system of medicine from the most remote times; professional massers were employed there by Alexander the Great in 327 In China the method is also of great antiquity, and practised by a professional class; the Swedish gymnastic system instituted by Pehr Henrik Ling is derived from the book of Cong-Fou, the bonze of Tao-Sse. Hippocrates describes and enjoins the use of manipulation, especially in cases of stiff joints, and he was followed by other Greek physicians. Oribasius gives an account of the application of friction with the bare hands, which exactly corresponds with the modern practice of massage. It is worthy of note that the treatment, after being held in high esteem by the leading Greek physicians, fell into disrepute with the profession, apparently on account of its association with vicious abuses. The same drawback has made itself felt in the present day, and can only be met by the most scrupulous care in the choice of agents and the manner of their employment. Among the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and later the Turks, massage came to be part of the ordinary procedure of the bath without any special therapeutic intention, and the usage has survived until to-day; but that mode of application was no doubt a refinement of civilized life. Medical rubbing is older and more elementary than bathing, as we see from its employment by savages. Probably it was evolved independently among different races from the natural instinct—shared by the lower animals—which teaches to rub, press or lick any part of the body in which uneasiness is felt, and is therefore the oldest of all therapeutic means.

According to Weiss, the therapeutic use of massage was revived in Europe by Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente (1537–1619), who applied it to stiff joints and similar conditions. Paracelsus in his De medicina Aegyptiorum (1591), gives a description of methodical massage as practised by the Egyptians quite on modern lines. Thereafter it appears to have been adopted here and there by individual practitioners, and various references are made to it, especially by French writers. The word “massage” occurs in an essay written by Pierre Adolphe Piorry (1794–1879) for a large encyclopaedia which appeared in 1818, but it was probably used before. The practice was gradually advocated by an increasing number of medical men. In Great Britain it was called “medical rubbing,” and at Edinburgh Beveridge had a staff of eight trained male rubbers. A book published by Estradère in 1863 attracted much attention, but the man who contributed most to the modern popularity of massage was Metzger of Amsterdam, who began to use it tentatively in 1853, and then proceeded to study and apply it methodically. He published an essay on the subject in 1868. The modern refinements of the treatment are chiefly due to him. At the same time, its application by Dr Silas Weir Mitchell to hysterical and other nervous conditions, in conjunction with the “rest cure,” has done much to make it known.

Massage, as now practised, includes several processes, some of which are passive and others active. The former are carried out by an operator, and consist of rubbing and kneading the skin and deeper tissues with the hands, and exercising the joints by bending the patient’s limbs. The active movements consist of a special form of gymnastics, designed to exercise particular muscles or groups of muscles. In what is called “Swedish massage” the operator moves the limbs while the patient resists, thus bringing the opposing muscles into play. Some writers insist on confining the word “massage” to the rubbing processes, and use the general term “manipulation”