Phineas Gage is probably the most famous person to have survived damage to the brain. He’s also the first patient from whom we learned something about the relation between personality and the function of the front parts of the brain. Gage was the foreman of a railway construction gang working for the contractors who were preparing the bed for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad near Cavendish, Vermont. On Sept. 13, 1848, an accidental explosion of charge he had set blew a 3’7”, 13½-pound tamping iron through his head, just under his left cheek bone and completely out through the top of his head. Gage was knocked over, but didn’t lose consciousness, even though most of the front part of the left side of his brain was destroyed. Dr. John Harlow treated him with such success that Gage returned home to Lebanon, New Hampshire, 10 weeks later. Some months after the accident, Gage felt strong enough to resume work, but the contractors wouldn’t give him his job back. They cited the difference in his personality as the reason. Since the accident, Gage had become impatient, obstinate, and grossly profane. Even his friends said he was no longer the man they knew. Nevertheless, Gage had a varied employment history, working a number of different jobs for short periods of time. In about 1859, after his health began to fail, he went to San Francisco to live with his family. He found a job on a farm, but in 1860 he began having epileptic seizures. On May 21, 1860, Phineas Gage died after a particularly long seizure.
