The Man Who Began Neuroscience

 Author: Hunter Williams

Phineas Gages skull after death

Phineas Gage was born in 1823 in Lebanon, New Hampshire, on his family’s farm. According to Editors, TheFamousPeople.com of the informational page entitled “Phineas Gage”, there isn’t much known about Phineas Gages childhood. Other than that, he was smart and lived with four other siblings. After childhood Phineas moved away from his family’s farm to find work as a contract railway worker. While working on railroads for a couple of years, Phineas eventually became a railroad Foreman, until a devastating injury would change Phineas, and the way doctors viewed Neurology forever.

 “Improbable Tales of Survival” A funny short
video that simplifies the Phineas Gage injury by Sam O Nella.

According to author Malcom Macmillian of “The Phineas Gage Story”, on September 13, 1848, while working as a blasting foreman, for Rutland and Burlington Rail Road. On that day Phineas was packing an explosive charge into the ground with a tamping iron, when unexpectedly the charge exploded. This sent the 13 ½ pound tamping iron through the front of Phineas Gages skull and landed around 25 to 30 yards behind him. Phineas was then rushed by his crew to Dr. John Martyn Harlow in the closest town to be treated and observed.

In the podcast “Everything Everywhere” according to host Gary Ardnt, Phineas unbelievably recovered in ten weeks only suffering from paralysis in his face and a missing eye. But was unable to continue working as a foreman because of the changes in his personality. Before the accident Phineas was known to be charismatic, responsible, and hardworking. But after the accident Dr. Harlow states, “He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity” and that he was “no longer Gage”. After the Phineas Gage case was seen by many medical professionals, Phineas was studied by even more doctors and medical teams in the following months.

In the last 12 of Phineas Gages life according to author Kendra Cherry on the article entitled “What happened to Phineas Gage?” Phineas became an attraction in the Barnum American Museum in New York. Phineas then moved to Chile and became a stagecoach driver. Phineas stayed as a stagecoach driver for the next seven years until his health started to decline. He then moved to San Francisco to live with his mother where he unfortunately passed away at age 36. After having multiple epileptic seizures linked to the injury 12 years before (Ardnt). The odd case of Phineas Gage gave medical professionals a better look at the functions of the brain. As well as brain trauma having an impact on a person’s behavior (Cherry).

Works Cited:

Arndt, Gary. “The Unlikely Survival of Phineas Gage” Everything-everywhere, https://everything-everywhere.com/the-unlikely-survival-of-phineas-gage/#:~:text=There%20is%20very%20little%20we%20know%20of%20the,Hampshire%20and%20that%20is%20where%20he%20was%20raised. Accessed 13 Oct. 2022. 

Cherry, Kendra. “What Happened to Phineas Gage?” Verywellmind, www.verywellmind.com/phineas-gage-2795244. Accessed 14 Oct. 2022. 

Editors, TheFamousPeople.com. “Phineas Gage” thefamouspeople. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/phineas-gage-46347.php. Accessed on 23 Oct. 2022. 

Landis, Henry. “Lebanon New Hampshire’s “Man Who Survived with A Hole in His Head”: Phineas P. Gage (1823-1860)” https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.1f30de1b74c66af0e72287e9a4e0718a?rik=s3U7DdSUcXjfLA&riu=http%3a%2f%2fimage1.findagrave.com%2fphotos250%2fphotos%2f2009%2f342%2f8144_126037660235.jpg&ehk=TlEnv7Vjzm597kv0UDIKW4QcNtVYpImbA7AMgiqIfx4%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0. Accessed on 22 Oct. 2022. 

Macmillian, Malcolm. “Phineas Gage’s Story” Uakron, 15 Aug. 1999. https://www.uakron.edu/gage/story.dot. 

Sam O Nella. “Improbable Tales of Survival” YouTube, 1 Apr 2019. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sam+o+nella+academy&qpvt=sam+o+nella+academy&view=detail&mid=C0B77A88A0FCE3B0650AC0B77A88A0FCE3B0650A&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dsam%2Bo%2Bnella%2Bacademy%26qpvt%3Dsam%2Bo%2Bnella%2Bacademy%26FORM%3DVDRE.

Links for Further Research: 

Arndt, Gary. “The Unlikely Survival of Phineas Gage” Everything-everywhere, https://everything-everywhere.com/the-unlikely-survival-of-phineas-gage/#:~:text=There%20is%20very%20little%20we%20know%20of%20the,Hampshire%20and%20that%20is%20where%20he%20was%20raised. Accessed 13 Oct. 2022. This article written by Gary Arndt delves into Phineas Gages early life, and the doctor’s eyewitness account of the injury.

Cherry, Kendra. “What Happened to Phineas Gage?” Verywellmind, www.verywellmind.com/phineas-gage-2795244. Accessed 14 Oct. 2022. This article written by Kendra Cherry describes Phineas Gages later life and what Gage did for work after the devastating injury. 

Ratiu, Peter et al. “The tale of Phineas Gage: digitally remastered.” PubMed, 21 May 2004. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15165371/.  This article written by Peter Ratiu and four others, describes the results of Phineas Gages skull, after reanalyzing the skull using computer imaging for the first time.