Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage: 

A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science

Non-Fiction

Author: John Fleischman

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Copyright: 2004

“Phineas should have been dead long before this.  A thirteen-pound iron rod through the head should kill a person instantly.  Surviving that, he should have died of shock soon after...”

...but miraculously, he didn’t.  In 1848, a railroad worker named Phineas Gage survived a freak accident in which a 3 foot long, 13 pound metal rod passed through his skull.  While Mr. Gage healed well physically, his personality changed and it was as if he became a different person.   This book takes a look at the details of the accident, the impact of Mr. Gage’s injuries, and what doctors learned from his unique circumstances about how the brain functions.  Filled with informative illustrations, this book is a good introduction to neuroscience and filled with tidbits on the history of medicine.  While it can have a lot of technical language at times, the book tries to explain each term and includes a glossary.  This telling of the tale of Phineas Gage could be used in many ways in both science and history classrooms.  This true story of Mr. Gage’s accident and resulting injuries is fascinating and would intrigue many a student interested in the grosser side of science.

eReader Note:  While reading this book on an eReader, I had to frequently flip back and forth between pages when there was an illustration.  It was difficult to differentiate between the captions for the illustrations and the regular text of the book.  This led to frequent rereading to decipher which was which.

Mr. Gage's skull, alongside his infamous tamping rod. 

Related Links:  I had a lot of fun looking at this topic on the internet.  Here are some of the things I found.

• Book Profile on Goodreads.com - This social media site contains more reviews by readers and information on the author.
• MedicalInfo.asia - A medical blog post on the case of Phineas Gage, including a short video simulation of the injury to his skull.
• An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage - A non-YA literature book on Phineas Gage.
• The Phineas Gage Project - An acoustic cover band in the New England area.  You can listen to some of their music at this link.