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Article: ADVENTURES W; ITH AN ICE PICK
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 3, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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AMERICA, 1847: a highly competent and, by all accounts,
pleasant manual labourer of Irish extraction named Phineas Gage is
involved in rock-blasting operations in mountainous terrain. In the
course of one sadly uncontrolled explosion, an iron bar is picked
up by the force of the blast and driven clean through the front
part of his head. Phineas is sent flying, but, to everybody's
surprise, he survives the removal of the protruding bar. As he
recovers, however, it is observed that his personality has
dramatically changed, though his memory and intelligence remain
apparently unaffected. In 1868, a physician named Harlow from
Boston writes about him: "His equilibrium, or balance, so to speak, ...