the longitudinal sinus, fracturing the parietal and
frontal bones, and breaking up considerable of the brain; the globe of
the left eye protruded nearly one-half of its diameter. The patient was
thrown backward and gave a few convulsive movements of the extremities.
He was taken to a hotel 3/4 mile distant, and during the transportation
seemed slightly dazed, but not at all unconscious. Upon arriving at the
hotel he dismounted from the conveyance, and without assistance walked
up a long flight of stairs to the hall where his wound was to be
dressed. Harlow saw him at about six o'clock in the evening, and from
his condition could hardly credit the story of his injury, although his
person and his bed were drenched with blood. His scalp was shaved, the
coagula and debris removed, and among other portions of bone was a
piece of the anterior superior angle of each parietal bone and a
semicircular piece of the frontal bone, leaving an opening 3 1/2 inches
in diameter. At 10 P.M. on the day of the injury Gage was perfectly
rational and asked about his work and after his friends. After a while
delirium set in for a few days, and on the eleventh day he lost the
vision in the left eye. His convalescence was rapid and uneventful. It
was said that he discharged pieces of bone and cerebral substance from
his mouth for a few days. The iron when found was smeared with blood
and cerebral substance.

As was most natural such a wonderful case of cerebral injury attracted
much notice. Not only was the case remarkable in the apparent innocuous
loss of cerebral substance, but in the singular chance which exempted
the brain from either concussion or compression, and subsequent
inflammation. Professor Bigelow examined the patient in January, 1850,
and made a most excellent report of the case, and it is due to his
efforts that the case attained world-wide notoriety. Bigelow found the
patient quite recovered in his faculties of body and mind, except that
he had lost the sight of the injured eye. He exhibited a linear
cicatrix one inch long near the angle of the ramus of the left lower
jaw. His left eyelid was involuntarily closed and he had no power to
overcome his ptosis. Upon the head, well covered by the hair, was a
large unequal depression and elevation. In order to ascertain how far
it might be possible for a bar of the size causing the injury to
traverse the skull in the track assigned to it, Bigelow procured a
common skull in which the