1848- A 25-year-old American, Phineas Gage, had a 3.2 cm diameter, one meter long iron rod penetrate his brain. After this, he lived for 12 years and was involved in the construction of the railroad between Rutland and Burlington. In the process of breaking and leveling the rocks to lay the railway in this hilly area, iron rods were fixed between the rocks and blasted. When the blast went off, the opposing wire could not penetrate the rock and entered his left cheek, pierced his brain and exited through the top of his head and fell 80 feet away. 



    A significant portion of the frontal lobe of his left brain was gone along with the wire. The thrown Gage's limbs thrashed for a moment. But in a few minutes he spoke. Then, sitting (yes. sitting!) on a bullock cart, he reached their shelter which was 1.2 km away. When the doctor came to see him, he greeted him with 'You've got as much work as you need, come!'


    He welcomed that. He returned home from the hospital at 10 weeks with loss of vision in his left eye, a scar on his chin and forehead, and a 5 by 4 cm gash on his scalp. Over the next few weeks he started doing small jobs. There was mild paralysis on the left side of the face. He became a medical wonder, a traveling museum for the fields of neurology, neuroscience and psychology until he died of epilepsy 12 years later!