Phineas Gage Research Paper

On September 13, 1848 at 4:30 pm, a 13 pound, 3½ foot long tamping iron was shot through Phineas Gage’s head. The accident occurred near the town of Cavendish, Vermont outside of the Green Mountains.
Phineas was standing over a hole and casually leaning on the tamping iron. The hole was filled with a coarse gunpowder that was usually used to blow up rocks into small enough pieces for his workers to carry away. After the gunpowder was poured into the hole, Phineas delicately pushed a fuse into the powder. His assistant then should have filled the hole up the rest of the way with sand. The next step Phineas should have done, is to tamp the sand down to suppress the explosion. His assistant then should have lit the fuse sticking out of the sand. But this time there was an error. For some reason, Phineas’s assistant did not fill the hole with sand.

While leaning over the hole, Phineas was distracted by one of his workers calling his name.

He looked over his right shoulder to see who was calling him, but the thick end of the tamping iron slipped into the hole. The gunpowder caused an explosion in the hole which shot the iron upwards towards Phineas. The sharp end of the tamping iron entered under his left cheek, passed behind his left eye, through the front of his brain, and came out in the middle of his forehead right above the hairline. The metal rod exploded into the air and landed about 30 feet away. Phineas was knocked onto his back, but then he sat up, even with blood pouring from all the holes in his face and

head.
All of the workers ran over to him to see if he was okay. Amazingly, he started talking about the explosion and what had happened. Phineas was then taken by ox cart to get medical attention.