Jack July

Today marks the 163rd anniversary of the impaling of Phineas Gage, a Vermont railroad foreman. An accidental explosion sent a metal rod (which he holds in the daguerreotype) through Gage’s cheek and out of the top of his skull, destroying his left frontal lobe. While this accident reportedly altered his cognitive function, it somehow did not kill Gage, who went on to become a celebrity of sorts and an object of study for neuroscientists and psychologists.