More pictures of the skull

Another fascinating picture of Phineas' skull!!

Phineas himself

A picture of Phineas Gage

More pictures of Phineas' skull

Phineas' skull and tamping iron up close.

Phineas Gage's skull

A picture of Phineas’ skull and how the tamping iron passed through it.

Phineas Gage video

Here is a video summary of Phineas Gage's accident. Enjoy!!

Later on…

Dr. Harlow writes Phineas’ mother and request to dig up Phineas’ body and use it for science to help understand the body and brain better. His mother does however allow for this to happen. So in 1868 Dr. Harlow goes to the Medical Society in Massachusetts and tells them everything and anything about Phineas, his accident, and how it affected him mentally, emotionally, and physically. Brain science begins to unravel and is broken down and new questions are raised and new things are made. But no one questions they still left unanswered was: “If there are exact locations in the brain that allow for the ability to hear or to breathe, is there a place that generates human social behavior? If that place is damaged, do you stop acting human?”

Phineas’ Life Goes On

1851-Phineas comes home and works around town at a stable.

Early 1852- Phineas meet a man who said he wants to have a stagecoach line in Chile, so spontaneously Phineas just says goodbye to New England and began a life in Chile as a stagecoach driver.

1859- Phineas goes to see family in San Francisco. He gets a plowing job for a farmer. Soon after he comes to San Fran, he experiences many seizures, (known as epileptic seizures.) Doctors tried to “bleed” Phineas or reduce his blood pressure by taking blood, to help the pressure on his brain, but this does not help the seizures. It is unknown exactly why he experiences them, maybe it’s from his accident before, maybe he hit his head again, or maybe he had an infection, it is unclear why, but them constantly occurring wears Phineas down and he passes away on May 21, 1860.

1862-Paul Broca a French surgeon from Paris discovers something new about the brain. He examines brains of people who experienced strokes and lost speaking ability. He then became aware of an injury in a certain spot on the brain located by the left front lobe. This is known as the “Broca area” found just above your left ear hole, two inches in front. Trauma to this area may cause you to not be able to speak ever again. Not long after, a man named Carl Wernickle who was German discovers another area of the brain that is in charge of interpreting speech. This area is found by the left temporal lobe and if damage it could hurt someone’s competency of apprehending speech. As you can see brain science slowly begins to develop and become clearer.

Following Phineas Gage

Phineas Gages story ended up at the “P.T. Barnum’s American Museum”, located in New York City on Broadway. This was no ordinary museum. This was a museum of the unthinkable; people would come from all over just to see. The museum included things such as “mermaids”, “bearded ladies”,” living giants”, bizarre animals and creature’s people just wanted to see for themselves. Among these things were pictures and models of Phineas’ head and explanations of what happened. At times Phineas himself would be presented at the museum with his tamping iron.

What we thought about how we thought- The Brain

In January 1858 and Dr. Bigelow goes to Boston to speak with and let doctors examined Phineas. They make a mold of Phineas’ face and discuss what happened and why it happened. Dr. Bigelow speaks with doctors and sort of makes a presentation about Phineas’ accident. Two main accumulations of doctors are intrigued by what Dr. Bigelow present. They come to their own conclusion of what happened and how it happened.

In the 1800s Franz Joseph Gall an Austrian Dr. makes the statement that intelligence and emotions are centered in the brain.

Long, long ago people said they “knew” emotions center in the heart, and the spleen controlled anger, and to me this is silly how nearly 300 years ago people said they “knew” for sure this is what happened in our body. Our thoughts about the body have changed just a bit.

In 1850 doctors however didn't know a lot about our body, they knew we had certain organs, they knew the skeletal makeup, but they were unclear about the brain exact functions.

The brain is covered by your cerebral cortex. Your daily functions are kept going by your brainstem, which connects into the spinal cord. The cortex is where all your emotions develop. You also remember, dream, speak and think in your cortex. You also experience your five senses in the cortex. All these things occur in your cortex, in the brain.

In 1850 doctors did not know much about cells, nerves, and neurons that were contained in the brain and spinal cord of the body. Messages and signals are transmitted through a person’s neuron. This was all unknown to them at time.

The two types of doctors examining Phineas each had very different thought processes. The one group referred to as the “Whole Brainers” thought the brain was a whole or one, and it was all connected somehow. The second group referred to as the “localizers” thought the brain was split into different sections and each section had a job. They thought specific “Organs” located in the brain were in charge of certain functions that occurred. They said that the “Organs of respect” and “kindness” were found right above the left eyebrow, which was where Phineas was struck, (They thought maybe this is why he has been acting different lately.) This group of doctors or “Localizers” found that the brain has 37 “Organs.” They concluded that if you have a strong organ, your skull will come out a little. If you had a week organ the skull will be indented in that spot. For example if your “Organ of Amativeness” has a strong bump after it then you have strong physical love. This thought process is known as phrenology. However the “Localizers” were incorrect about the “Organs” found in the brain, but they were correct about “Localization.” And as far as the “whole Brainers” thought process, they were incorrect about the brain as a whole, but correct about how it is all connected.

The brain does have many different functions found throughout the cortex which has many parts. The cortex allows you to pick out certain things, walk, and allow you to perform many other different tasks; it is all possible because of this part of the body which is found in your brain.

What we thought about how we though- Doctors of the 1850’s

Doctors during this time period were said to have dressed like proper gentleman. Lots of pictures were painted of them to make them look extra good. They had cleaned cut shaves, gold jewelry, expensive looking clothing, or jackets, and especially looked smart. Although lots of pictures were made of doctors, there were not many pictures of him doing anything like performing any operations or examining any patient's. This was because back then it was hard to take a picture of a moving object, no one really had the right equipment to focus in on and take a picture fast enough of any object in motion. A man named Josiah Hawes from Boston was probably the first to take a picture of doctors performing tasks that make them doctors. Back then only males were doctors and many times when they performed an operation or examined a patient, rarely any of them wore gloves, masks, or scrubs. No protective gear was included in these pictures.