User:Ex Mendacium/Niccolò Massa

Family Life
Massa was the child of Apollonio Massa and Franceschina Danese. His parents had six sons and three daughters including himself. In 1505 as Massa was still a child his father passed away for unknown reasons. This was followed by the death of his five brothers all before the year 1530 with the last of them, Antonio Massa, passing in 1529. Massa found himself the provider of the house early in his career. The unfortunate circumstances of his family did not just apply to his brothers, as one of his three sisters was an invalid from childhood. She lived with Massa as he was her sole provider and caretaker. His two other sisters lived relatively normal lives, and both married, with Massa providing the dowry for both. Massa had two sons, a daughter, and a nephew of which he took care. Once his career picked up, Massa found himself living a comfortable life. He was known to be very proud of his accomplishments as a “self-made man.” In 1548 he married his daughter off to a Venetian family. Not but two years later did his daughters husband die. Once again Massa was supporting his daughter and his new grandson. Despite many family troubles, Massa pursued and thrived in the field of medicine.

Syphilis
His first publication, Liber de morbo gallico, discussed his work on the disease syphilis. He believed that syphilis was a new disease that arose during in Italy during the period of time around the Siege of Naples in 1494. Syphilis, in his belief, was a sexually transmitted disease primarily. The most common way to contract the disease was through sexual intercourse with an infected woman. However, he did also believe that the disease could be spread through non-sexual contact and in rare cases spontaneously within the body. The symptoms he describes were hard ulcers on the genitalia of the infected and in some cases including fever, pain in one’s extremities, swelling of the groin, hair loss, and varying manifestations on the skin. Finally, in extreme cases the disease was seen to affect the nervous system of the infected. He studied the disease in traditional humoral terms. He believed the symptoms were caused by cold and dry phlegm within the liver.

Fever
Niccol Massa’s book, Liber de febre pestilentiali, came at a very important time as Italy was facing in epidemic in the year 1555. The epidemic that was ravaging Italy at this time was the Bubonic Plague. Niccol Massa was called into question whether the sickness in Venice was actually the Bubonic Plague. Upon examining the sickness in a Galenic nature he determined that because the sickness was affecting all people with no exceptions to age, sex, or occupation that it must be through the air. This connection came from the Hippocratic belief the elements in the human body. The one element common to all is air and Massa concluded that it was responsible. This disease, in Massa’s eyes, was caused by an occurrence of warm and damp weather of which corrupted the air. He determined that this disease was spread by the sick through the air and taken in by breathing this corrupted air. Massa advised that isolation as well as deep sanitation of the city was necessary to halter the spread of this disease.

Cerebrospinal Fluid
Massa is credited with being the first physician to discover intraventricular fluid intracranially during in autopsy. Massa reported these findings in his book Liber Introductorius Anatomiae. In his book he described finding a large amount of fluid between cerebral ventricles. This fluid is known now to be cerebrospinal fluid. This major discovery is considered an important milestone in the history of medicine.