Science Phineas Gage, Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient Each generation revises his myth. Here’s the true story. From a virtuous foreman to a sociopathic drifter On Sept. 13, 1848, at around 4:30 p.m., the time of day when the mind might start wandering, a railroad foreman named Phineas Gage filled a drill hole with gunpowder and turned his head to check on his men. It was the last normal moment