Phineas Gage by John Fleischman

Phineas Gage by John Fleischman

Phineas Gage was truly a man with a hole in his head. Phineas, a railroad construction foreman, was blasting rock near Cavendish, Vermont, in 1848 when a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain. Miraculously, he survived to live another eleven years and become a textbook case in brain science.

At the time, Phineas Gage seemed to completely recover from his accident. He could walk, talk, work, and travel, but he was changed. Gage "was no longer Gage," said his Vermont doctor, meaning that the old Phineas was dependable and well liked, and the new Phineas was crude and unpredictable.

His case astonished doctors in his day and still fascinates doctors today. What happened and what didn't happen inside the brain of Phineas Gage will tell you a lot about how your brain works and how you act human.

As a science writer for the American Society for Cell Biology and a freelance writer for publications such as Discover, Muse, and Air & Space Smithsonian, John Fleischman puts his mind to work. He has worked as a senior editor for Yankee and Ohio magazines and as a science writer at Harvard Medical School. He lives in Ohio with his wife and Psyche, a greyhound.