Phineas Gage - Subsequent Life and Travels

Subsequent Life and Travels

By November 25 Gage was strong enough to return to his parents' home in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where by late December he was "riding out, improving both mentally and physically." In April 1849 he returned to Cavendish and paid a visit to Harlow, who noted at that time loss of vision (and ptosis) of the left eye, a large scar on the forehead, and "upon the top of the head ... a deep depression, two inches by one and one-half inches wide, beneath which the pulsations of the brain can be perceived. Partial paralysis of the left side of the face." Despite all this, "his physical health is good, and I am inclined to say he has recovered. Has no pain in head, but says it has a queer feeling which he is not able to describe."

Unable to return to his railroad work, Harlow says, Gage appeared for a time at Barnum's American Museum in New York City (the cu­ri­ous paying to see, presumably, both Gage and the instrument which had injured him) although there is no independent confirmation of this. Recently, however, evidence has surfaced supporting Harlow's statement that Gage made public appearances in "the larger New England towns". (On Gage's job-loss and public appearances, see more below.)

Gage later worked in a livery stable in Hanover, New Hampshire and then for some years in Chile as a long-distance stagecoach driver on the Valparaiso–Santiago route. After his health began to fail around 1859, he left Chile for San Francisco, where he recovered under the care of his mother and sister (who had gone there from New Hampshire around the time Gage went to Chile). For the next few months he did farm work in Santa Clara.