The Postmortem Portraits of Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage is the famous name behind a horrifying incident in which Gage survived a large tamping iron that impaled him through the skull. Mind Hacks looks at the evolving artwork that explains his injury. Although the incident occurred in 1848, Gage lived until 1860.

The first such picture was constructed with nothing more than pen and ink. Gage’s doctor John Harlow sketched his skull which Harlow had acquired after the patient’s death.

This Gage is forever fleshless, the iron stuck mid-flight, the shattered skull frozen as it fragments.

Harlow’s sketch is the original and the originator. The first impression of Gage’s immortal soul.

Gage rested as this rough sketch for over 100 years but he would rise again.

Since then, scientists have constructed more and more bizarre images to illustrate the devastation to Gage's brain. See them, with explanations, in a post at Mind Hacks.