Sunday, Sept. 11 at 2 p.m.—CAVENDISH—There are probably few readers in the area that aren’t aware of Phineas Gage, the railroad foreman, who on Sept. 13, 1848, had a tamping rod pass through his head as a result of a blasting accident, and lived for 12 more years. What people may know less about is Dr. John Martyn Harlow, the Cavendish, Vt, physician who treated him and followed his recovery, thereby documenting the first case of traumatic brain injury in the medical literature. Also interesting is Dr. Edwards Williams, whose practice was on Depot Street in Proctorsville but was first on the scene. It was to him that Gage made his famous remark, “Doctor, here is business enough for you.”
Harlow’s training in antiphlogistic therapy (preventing or relieving inflammation) was important to Gage’s survival. But what happened to him when he left Cavendish in 1857? Was he really the “obscure country doctor,” as he referred to himself?
Dr. Williams left medicine, became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and was decorated as a Knight of the Order of the Polar Star and went into the railroad business.
Learn more about Dr. Harlow and Dr. Williams at the Cavendish Historical Society’s annual Phineas Gage Walk & Talk, which takes place on Sept. 11 at the CHS Museum, Route 131 in Cavendish. The program begins at 2 p.m. at the museum. The walk includes the location of the accident, Dr. Harlow’s home and surgery, and the boarding house where Gage was taken after his injury.
This program is free and open to the public. For more information, call 802-226-7807 or email margocaulfield@icloud.com.
