New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-06-28
A Remarkable Surgical Case.

On the 18th of September, 1648,
Phineas P Gage, foreman of gang
of men engaged in blasting a deep
cut in the Rutland and Burlington
road, had tamping iron blown
through his brains, and recovered with
in sixty days, living twelve years
after.
The tamping iron was three and
half feet in length, one and quarter
inches thick, and pointed at one end,
the taper being seven inches long,
and the diameter of the point quar-
ter of an inch. 1t weighed thirteen
pounds. The point was upward and
the iron smooth.
The missile entered the cheek out
side the teeth. and under the cheek
bone, went inside an inch behind the
eye, and out of the top of the head in
the center, two inches back of the
line where the forehead and hair meet.
Gage was a perfectly healthy,
strong, and active young man, twenty
i've years of age, of nervo-bilious
temperament, five and half feet in
height, average weight one hundred
and fifty pounds, possessing an iron
will as well as an iron frame, muscular
system remarkably well developed,
having had scarcely a days illness
from childhood up.
One piece of the skull had been
broken out in fragments; another was
raised and thrown back like door,
the scalp serving as hinge; and on
the opposite side of the wound there
was another fracture and an eleva-
ton. The globe of the left eye was
partially protruded from its orbit; the
left side Of the face was more prom
inent than the right. The opening in
the skull was two inches wide by three
and a half long, and the brain was
hanging in shreds on the hair. The
pulsation of the brain could be dis
tinctly seen, and the doctor passed his
finger in its whole length without the
patient saying he felt pain.
In fifty. nine days the patient was
abroad. On the third day there was
inflammation and some delirium; and
during several weeks there was ocoa-
sional delirium; for two weeks of the
time the patient lay in stupid condi-
ton, and his death was expected and
his grave-clothes prepared. On the
twenty-fifth of November he went in a
close carriage thirty miles to his home
in Lebanon.
The subsequent history of the case
is interesting. Gage came back to
Cavendish in April in fair health and
strength, having his tamping iron with
him, and he carried it with him till the
day of his death, twelve years after,
The effect of the injury appears te
have been the destruction of the equi,
librium between the intellectual faoul.
ties and the animal propensities. He
was now capricious, ftful, irreverant,
impatient of restraint, vacillating-s
youth in intellectual capacity anC
manifestations. man in physical sys
TEN and passions, His physical re
coVery was complete, buts those wht
once knew him as a shrewd, smart
energetic, persistent business man
recognized the change in his menta
character. The balane of his minC
was gone.
He went to various places, being
engaged here and there; was yea
and half in charge of horses at {
! livery stable; was exhibited at Bar
NUNS Museum in New York; and ii
August 1852. four years after his in
Jury, left New England forever, ana
! went to Valparaiso with man wht
was going to establish 9 line of coaches
Here he lived eight years, OCCASIONAL!
driving a six horse coach, and endur
ing many hardships. In 1859 hi
, health began to fail. In 1860 he haC
: a long illness, the nature of which ,cal
, not now be ascertained.
l He now left Chile, and DIR. Harley
} lost all trace of him for some years
| but finally found out that the mothe
i and sister were in San Francisco
wrote to them and ascertained tina
Gage had got there in 1860; works
! With a farmer at Santa Clara, and i
! February, 1861, was taken with cpl
: leptio fits; afterward he worked /
! several places; and finally, in May
9 1861, had succession of fits whicl
{ lasted a couple of days, and carrie
: him off. -...s !. f...s