Week Twelve: Biography: Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman

Bibliography: Fleischman, J. (2002). Phineas Gage: A gruesome but true story about brain science. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 978-0618494781

SUMMARY
Phineas Gage was the foreman of a track laying company that was hired to blast through the granite bedrock outside of Vermont to allow the railroads to pass through it. On September 13, 1848, something went wrong with Gage's explosives. His tamping iron shot through this cheek and out the top of his head. Not only did he survive the accident, but he continued to talk, walk and stay coherent for hours until the doctors finally showed up. After the accident, Gage's personality changed and he became very aggressive and unpredictable. During the 11 1/2 years that he lived after the explosion, his behavior, medical information and eventually his brain played a huge role in helping doctors understand how the brain functioned, which parts corresponded to which behaviors/activities and how the wider body systems worked.

MY IMPRESSIONS
Much like An American Plague, I highly enjoyed this book. Fleischman combined not only the in-depth information about Phineas Gage and his accident, but the medical beliefs of the time regarding brain function, common medical treatments and theories of science, and transportation. It was especially fascinating that Phineas Gage's life and amazing accident played such a huge role in brain science, even 150 years later! This was an exciting time during science, when the medical field was still figuring out such things as microscopes, cells and bacteria (and that humors and phrenology were not accurate concepts in medicine.) The many photographs and illustrations in the book helped explain Gage's situation and helped the reader better understand the world in 1848. While some of the images may be too gruesome for younger readers (despite the warning title), it was an informative, exciting and important book. The writing was clear and engaging, the content was shocking yet still scholarly, and it combined science with real life (which should appeal to both children and parents/teachers.)

Gage's story really captures the imagination of people. An internet search brought up all sorts of homemade videos, drawings and reports on Gage and his contributions toward science. This was my favorite, made for a children's neuroscience fair at Connecticut College by Jessica Freeland and Karl Langberg:

Phineas even has his own YouTube music video! Since so much of the brain is still a mystery to us, I think people can really appreciate the significance of what was learned because of Gage.

ACTIVITIES
This book would be appropriate for a discussion with grades 5 to 12.

After his accident, Phineas Gage took part in the carnival circuit. Research the history of these travelling circuses and the well-known acts at the time. Compare these early carnivals to modern circuses like Barnum & Baileys or Ringling Brothers. How have they changed over time? What does that shift in aesthetics say about our culture?

Let's explore the brain and its functions. Draw a diagram of the brain. Compare and contrast this map of the brain to the Phrenological Head on page 36. Were the phrenologists correct about any parts of their beliefs about how the brain worked? How did Phineas Gage help change the way doctors viewed the brain?

Write a short poem or song about the life of Phineas Gage.

REVIEWS
"Science writer John Fleischman uses a clipped, engaging expository style to tell the incredible story of the railroad worker who, in 1848, survived the piercing blast of a 13-pound iron rod as it entered below his cheekbone and exited the front of his skull. Photographs, glossary, a resource listing and index lend this textbook case the same sense of immediacy as do the words."
Publishers Weekly, April 15, 2002

"Carefully separating fact from legend...Fleischman fleshes out the tale with looks at mid-19th century medicine, the history of brain science, and how modern researchers have reconstructed Gage's accident with high-tech tools. He also adds eye-widening photos of Gage's actual skull (now at Harvard), his life mask, and dramatic rod-through-bone computer images that, as the author writes, will make you wince 'whether you're a brain surgeon or a sixth grader.'"
Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2002

"Like Penny Colman's Corpses, Coffins and Crypts (Holt, 1997) and James M. Deem's Bodies from the Bog (Houghton, 1998), Phineas Gage brings a scientific viewpoint to a topic that will be delightfully gruesome to many readers"
School Library Journal, March 1, 2002