360 
&. ARCHIE STOCK WELL. 
The larger the perforating injury then— within limits —the 
greater is the opportunity of exit for lacerated and mangled tissues, 
and the less the chance for compression; a fragment or mere 
specula of bone, undetected or overlooked, has brought more than 
a few unfortunates to the grave; and in the avoidance of com¬ 
pression is found the secret of the wonderful recuperative powers 
sometimes exhibited after the brain has been desperately wound¬ 
ed, with lacerations so extensive as to be positively appalling! 
1. On September 13th, 1848, Dr. Harlow, of Cavendish, Ver¬ 
mont, was called to see Phineas P. Cage, who, while engaged in 
blasting upon a line of railway, had a tamping iron (a form of 
“crow-bar”) weighing thirteen and one-fourth pounds , and three 
feet seven inches long by one and one-fourth inches in diameter , 
driven completely through his head. The pointed end entered 
just beneath the left zygoma, the entire instrument escaping 
through an opening three and one-half inches in diameter at the 
junction of the frontal and saggatal sutures. The frontal and both 
parietal bones were fractured, as was also the floor of the left 
orbit, and the temporal portion of the sphenoid ; * besides the lateral 
sinus was opened, the optic nerve severed and the eye forced from 
its socket; and the left anterior cerebral lobe traversed and almost 
wholly destroyed, considerable quantities of lacerated brain escap¬ 
ing on various occasions. As may be imagined, the prognosis was 
“ Fatal .” 
Nevertheless the man made a speedy and excellent recovery, and 
as Prof. Bigelow, of Boston (who was associated with Dr. Harlow 
in the case) informs me, was given to vociferously cursing his at¬ 
tendants because they bad not restored the sight of the injured 
optic. Twelve years later he was following the occupation of 
omnibus driver in Valparaiso, South America, and was there seen 
by Dr. Henry Trevitt. Dr. Bigelow also declares that Gage, at 
* Further particulars may be had by consulting the Boston Medical and Sur¬ 
gical Journal, vol. xxxix., p. 389; vol. ixiii., p. 327; and vol. lxxx., p. 116. 
Gage’s skull is now in the Museum of Harvard Medical School, having been ob¬ 
tained after his death in California in 1869. An account also appears in Amer. 
Jour. Med. Sciences for July, 1850: Bryant, Gross, and other authors give it men¬ 
tion. 
