ANNUAL PHINEAS GAGE WALK & TALK: DR. HARLOW

There are probably few readers in our area that aren’t aware of Phineas Gage, the railroad foreman, who on September 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.

Harlow’s training in antiphlogistic therapy (preventing or relieving inflammation) was important to Gage 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. John M. Harlow

Learn more about Dr. Harlow at the Cavendish Historical Society’s annual Phineas Gage Walk  & Talk, which takes place on Sept. 13 at the CHS Museum, Route 131 in Cavendish, VT. The program begins at 2 pm at the Museum. The walk includes the location of the accident, Dr. Harlow’s home/surgery, and the boarding house where Gage was taken after his injury.

This program is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 802-226-7807 or margoc@tds.net