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Phineas Gage Research Paper

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Phineas Gage: First Research Patient
Lizzi Chapman

The Accident On September 13, 1848, at around 4:30 p.m., a railroad foremen named Phineas Gage (July 9, 1823-May 21, 1860) filled a drill hole with gunpowder and turned his head to check on his men…

The Rutland and Burlington Railroad had hired Gage’s crew that fall to clear away some tough black rock near Cavendish, Vermont. They considered Gage’s crew to be one of the best around. Among other tasks, a foreman sprinkled gunpowder into blasting holes, and then tamped the powder down, gently, with an iron rod. This completed, an assistant poured in sand or clay, which got tamped down hard to confine the bang to a tiny space. Gage had specially commissioned his tamping iron from a blacksmith. Sleek like a javelin, it weighed 13¼ pounds and stretched 3 feet 7 inches long. (Gage stood 5 feet 6 inches.) At its widest, the rod had a diameter of 1¼ inch, although the last foot—the part Gage held near his head when tamping—was tapered to a point.
This next part has some different variations. Gage’s crewmembers were loading some busted rock onto a cart, and they apparently distracted him. One says Gage …show more content…
Gage was a hardworking, respectable man before his accident; he was polite and dignified. After the accident, people around him described his as vulgar and rude, and he used profanity frequently, which he did not do pre-accident. Gage didn’t return to his normal self after his full recovery. Gage’s accident is believed to have played a role in the later development of psychosurgery and specifically lobotomy. This started the ideas on the brain being able to heal on its own and many other theories. People that experienced brain damage usually didn’t survive or fully recover in this time because the medical experience was very little. Few brain operations were completed before Gage’s accident and most didn’t

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