Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-01-06

railroad in Cavendish, Vt, was sit
ting on a ledge of rock above a
hole into which he was tamping
| the powder preparatory to blasting.
Sept. 10, 1848. A call from some
of the workmen behind him caused
him to turn his head to one side,
and while doing so an explosion
| took place, driving the tamping
iron upward, as projectile is
thrown from a gun. This iron,
which is cylindrical in form, only
that at one end it comes to blunt
point, is worn quite smooth by use,
is three feet seven inches in length,
one inch and quarter in diameter,
and weighs about thirteen pounds.
The point is quarter of an inch in
diameter, and the slope from the
largest diameter is quite gradual,
commencing twelve inches from the
end. The point entered The face of
Gage back Of the cheek bone of the
left side, making for itself at once,
what in railroad engineering would
be called a tunnel, and not a cut,
and thence passed upward, inclining
little to the other side, which is
accounted for by the position of the
head at the time of the injury, and
came out just forward of the centre
of the top of the head, after which
it went high into the air and fell |
some rods behind him covered with |
blood and brain.
The convulsive motions which
Immediately followed the injury, |
ceased in q few moments, so that |
Gage soon spoke, and after being |
carried in ox-cart three-quarters of |
a mile to house, was able with a
little assistance to get out of the
cart, and after resting awhile with
the left arm supported, to walk up |
a long fight of stairs to his room.
During the dressing of the wound
he was perfectly conscious, though
weak from loss of blood, and showed
the surgeon at what point the iron
entered. The top of the head pre-
scented at this time the same appear
ance as might be seen if a stick
were drawn up through the yield
ing ice; a conical, craterlike look,
with cracks radiating from the cen
tire, and detached fragments of bone
ndherent to the scalp.
With the simplest and most ra-
tional treatment this man pro-
gressed toward recovery, with
hardly a bad symptom the only
trouble, not the result of his own
imprudence, being an accumulation
of the discharge within the head,
by the blocking of the exits. Three
months and a half from the time Of
the injury found the wound closed,
the skin stretching across, the gen
eral health and strength improving,
and bodily recovery apparently
complete. But his former steady eff
Gent character seems to have been
destroyed by his sickness, and he
now showed obstinacy, vacillation,
characterization, and restlessness
that drove him from one occupation
and country to another, until after
exhibiting at Barnum's for awhile
(which may be the secret of the
doubt attaching to this case0 he
lived in Chill for some years, and
then in San Francisco, where he
died of epilepsy in May, 1861,
twelve and a half years after the
injury. His mother, with whom
his last days were spent, waving
the impulses of affection, gave the
head and iron, in the interest of
humanity, to DIR. j. NJ. Harlow, of
Woburn, the original attendant of
the case, who deposited them in the
museum of the medical college at
Boston, where, under proper condi-
tons, any one can see them.
The history of this case, before
unique in the annals of surgery, is
not quite complete without adding
that at the meeting in Boston, at
which DIR. Harlow read the paper
mentioned, there was man present
who, sometime ago, in blasting
under ground in very wet place,
communicated the fire to the blast
through a hollow gas-tube about
three-fourths of an inch in diameter.
After touching on the fuse, he waited
until all chance of explosion had
apparently passed, but had hardly |
ventured in before his companion
heard the explosion, and going in,
found him lying on his face, making |
Intellectual efforts to rise, with the |
piece of gas-pfpe, some four feet
ong, ransfixing the head, passing
in forward of one ear and out be-
hind the other, in such a manner as
to pin his soft hat to his head. In
this case also, the recovery seemed
perfect, aside from a new tendency
TO alcoholic excess, and though the
condition of the man happily pre-
vented that absolute demonstration
of the injury, which was possible in
the other case, there was no one
who doubted, unless perhaps, there
was present some learned represent
alive of the Plymouth titterers, who
had forgotten that truth was stranger
than Acknowledgment { Mass