New News

Since I wrote my book, my Boston colleague, Matthew L. Lena and I have discovered a number of things about Phineas Gage. Between them they require us to change the generally accepted view of his post-accident adjustment. They contradict the notion that for the rest of his life Phineas' behaviour continued to be impulsive and uninhibited and that he exhibited what has come to be called 'the frontal lobe syndrome' or even the 'Phineas Gage Syndrome'.

How was the damage caused to Phineas' brain and which parts were destroyed and damaged?

Here is the reconstruction by Peter Ratiu and Ion-Florin Talos of the passage of the tamping iron through Phineas' skull and brain.

The passage of the tamping iron

The image Peter Ratiu and Ion-Florin Talos published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2004.

The reconstruction by Peter Ratiu and Ion-Florin Talos is of Gage's skull, not a model of it made by deforming the model of another skull. From it they believe the skull hinged open as the tamping iron passed through it and that once it was completely through, the muscles and other soft tissues of the face caused the skull to close. The damage to the brain was to the left frontal lobe.

You can see the animated version of their reconstruction at tinyurl.com/59ah3w and read about it in the electronic version of the paper: P. Ratiu and I-F. Talos (2004): The tale of Phineas Gage, digitally remastered. New England Journal of Medicine 351: e21-e21.

What did Phineas do while travelling around the larger New England towns?

A broadside or poster has been found advertising a lecture-exhibition Phineas gave. The precise date is unknown but it was on a 'Tuesday' in Concord, NH, and the broadside was produced no earlier than the end of 1851. The lecture-exhibition was given some time after that and before the end of 1854, possibly some time in 1852. The claims Phineas made about his injury were supported by letters from many doctors who had examined him

Matt has found an advertisement announcing Phineas' arrival in a Vermont town in August 1852. Phineas was accompanied by a 'General' Washburn of thin stature and small height - a so-called 'dwarf skeleton.' This is the only evidence that Phineas ever travelled in the company of what came to be called 'freaks.' The advertisement makes it clear that Phineas was not on a fairground or travelling as part of a circus.

Would that someone living locally who saw him left a written record!

What did Phineas really look like?

A laterally reversed photograph of the daguerreotype made of Phineas Gage

From the collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus

Jack and Beverly Wilgus acquired the daguerreotype of which this is a photograph some 30 years ago but identified it as Phineas only in 2008. They think he looks self-assured. Do you? We don't think this Phineas would hide in Chile from others. Do you?

How do we know this photograph is of a daguerreotype of Phineas? Can we reconstruct what Phineas looked like before the accident

Why is it Gage? Among other things, Jack and Beverly Wilgus found that the scars on the forehead of this image exactly matched those on an image of Phineas Gage's life mask. The images of writing on the real tamping iron also match those on the daguerreotype. For these and other details, see their 2009 paper 'Face to Face with Phineas Gage' in the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 18:340-345. The paper is available online at libraries subscribing to the journal through InformaWorld. You can find out much more about the image at http://brightbytes.com/phineasgage

A reconstruction of what Phineas looked like before the accident? Not really. A blogger has posted an image that conjoins the real and undamaged right side of Phineas' face with its mirror image thinking "this helps portray Mr Gage more accurately." It is absolutely no help at all! For at least 25 years psychologists have known that the asymmetry of facial structure results in two very different 'wholes' from such conjoining. Two 'lefts' never make the same face as two 'rights.' Beverly Wilgus is well aware of this trap but at my insistence replaced the damaged left eye with a digitally altered mirror image of the undamaged right eye. She also removed the highlights and the scar on his forehead. The result is about the closest we can get to what the undamaged Phineas might have looked like - and his real appearance will probably always be uncertain

Phineas at Barnum's American Museum, New York City

Dr. Harlow says Phineas was at Barnum's Museum but unfortunately we have no record of anyone seeing him there. Nor does there seem to be a Barnum poster or an advertisement in the New York press advertising his appearance. Do you, a friend, have anything documenting his appearance at Barnum's? It would have been in the 1850s.

Was Phineas still in the USA in 1854?

A note has been found with an August 1854 date, apparently signed by Phineas, concerning his tamping iron. The date conflicts with Dr. Harlow's saying that Phineas went to Chile in late 1852.

What did Phineas' coach driving in Chile involve?

I described the extraordinary personal and cognitive-motor skills required for driving Concord coaches in places like Valparaiso on pages 104-106 of 'An Odd Kind of Fame,' and Matt Lena has since found news items from which details can be inferred of the driver's tasks on the Santiago-Valparaiso run in the 1850s.

The 1860 news items found by Matt Lena say the 13 hour, 110 mile journey from Valparaiso to Santiago started at 4am. Passengers paid $10.00 for the journey and were allowed 50 pounds of luggage - all of which Phineas would have had to deal with in addition to at least checking (if not actually performing) the feeding, grooming and harnessing of the horses beforehand. Valparaiso was well-known to be full of New England coachdrivers some of whom must have known Phineas and some of whom may be related to you - could a letter from a Valparaiso co-worker of his be in your grandmother's attic?