Meet Phineas Gage

Massachusetts photographers have apparently found the only known image of Phineas Gage.  Phineas Gage is famous throughout medical literature and folklore because he survived a horrific accident.  He was a 25 year old railroad construction foreman, and on Sept. 13th, 1848, an iron rod he was using to stuff gunpowder exploded.  The rod entered his left cheek and exited out the top of his head.  Remarkably, Phineas survived this injury and lived for another 11 years, though he experienced a radical change in personality.

The picture was owned by Jack and Beverly Wilgus for 30 years, and they originally thought it was a whaler with a harpoon.  After posting the picture online, several readers suggested it was not a whaler, and one thought it might be Phineas Gage himself.

Intrigued, the Wilguses compared their image to that of a life mask at Harvard Medical School’s Warren Anatomical Museum and found it could be superimposed perfectly, with scars lining up correctly. Apparent writing on the metal rod in the image matches writing on Gage’s iron rod, which is also in the Warren Museum. The images can be viewed at http://brightbytes.com/ phineasgage.

Link – via latimes

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.