Brainstorm: Life between the ears

Some of the greatest discoveries in history have come about purely by accident. Take the case of Phineas Gage. In 1848, a handsome 25-year-old railroad foreman swaggers down a Vermont road to work, having no idea that in a few short hours he would become the first, and perhaps the most famous, patient of Neurology.

Phineas Gage was described as a model railroad foreman: quiet, well-mannered, and hardworking. On that fateful day of Sept. 13, while packing explosive powder into a hole with a tamping iron, a task routinely performed while cutting railroad bed, his luck backfired. Literally. 

The powder detonated. The iron tamping rod, measuring nearly 4 feet long, 1.25 inches thick and weighing 13.25 pounds, was blown upward. In its path was Phineas’ left cheek, the frontal cortex of his brain and his thick skull bone. The rod came to rest about 8 meters from its victim. 

One can only imagine what the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would have had to say about that. 

Witnesses to the event stated that Phineas never lost consciousness. With a missing eye and a gaping hole, he rode in the back of the wagon only to tell the doctor upon arrival, “Here is business enough for you.” 

The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.