September 13, 2020 • 11 mins
Phineas Gage was struck through the skull with a tamping iron on this day in 1848. / On this day in 1922, a fire in Smyrna in Asia Minor -- present-day İzmir, Turkey -- began blazing through the city.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all. Were we running two episodes today, which means
that you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson.
Enjoy the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class
from how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk
of Stuff You Missed in History Class. It's the show
where we explore the past, one day at a time
with a quick look at what happened today in history.
(00:23):
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and it's September.
On this day, Phineas Gauge was struck through the skull
with a tamping iron. Gauge was the formant of a
railroad crew and they were clearing the way for a
railroad by blasting holes in rock through the side of
a hill. There's a several step process. Step one, you
(00:47):
made a hole. Step two was to put gunpowder into
the bottom of the hole. Step three was that the
foreman would put a fuse into the hole. Step four
was that the hole would be filled in with oil
and the foreman would tamp that down with his tamping iron.
Step five was to light the fuse. Another crew, once
(01:08):
the explosion happened, would clear away the rubble while the
first crew went on to dig the next hole. Gage
had done this over and over and over, but on September,
while working outside Cavendish, Vermont, something went wrong. He lowered
his tamping rod, which was made out of iron, to
tamp down the soil, but there wasn't any soil there yet,
(01:31):
so the iron struck rock and it made it spark,
and when the gunpowder exploded, it drove the tamping iron
up under his cheekbone, through the frontal lobe of his brain,
and all the way out of his skull. It landed
several yards away. It was amazing that he survived this
at all. It was also amazing that he survived the recovery.
(01:54):
The germ theory of disease didn't really exist yet. Nobody
had a sense of how to clean a dirty wound
like this and how to keep it from getting infected.
He also lost a lot of blood. He sustained a
number of burns, and the tamping iron, when it flew
through his head, took a chunk of his brain with it.
(02:15):
He might not have even lost consciousness, though, and the
words of the local paper quote the most singular circumstance
connected with this melancholy affair is that he was alive
at two o'clock this afternoon and in full possession of
his reason and free from pain. The medical treatment that
Gauge got after this injury was really based on the
idea of the four humors and how in the body
(02:37):
there were four humors that needed to be kept in balance.
His doctor thought that the blood loss helped him out
in this whole regard. Ultimately, he did recover, although he
lost the eye that had been damaged when the tamping
iron flew behind it through his skull. He did have
some notable changes in his behavior. Though he had been
(03:00):
described before the accident as smart and competent and reliable,
but then after the accident he was described as fitful
and irreverent, profane, impatient, obstinate, capricious, and vacillating. His doctor,
whose account may be a little biased because he was
(03:21):
trying to get attention in a medical journal, described Gauge
is kind of like a child. His friends and family
just said he was no longer Gauge. Although sometimes he's
described as never being able to hold down a steady
job after this, that is not true. He did have
steady work for much of the rest of his life
as well, as long as his health allowed him to
(03:42):
do it. He definitely, though, had different behavior from before.
He died in May of eighteen sixty, so many years
after this accident happened. He was buried on the twenty
three of May that year. Today, Phineas Gauge is famous
in the world of neuropsychology. He came a textbook example
of how different parts of the brain have different functions
(04:05):
and how a brain injury can affect a person's behavior.
He didn't, though, revolutionize the entire state of medicine. Sometimes
you'll read articles that make it sound as though the
reason we have lobotomies is because of Phineas Gauge, and
that's more like people in the present retroactively assigning Phineas
(04:26):
Gauge to the phenomenon of lobotomies when they weren't directly
connected in that way. You can learn more about all
of this in the September eleven episode of Stuff You
Missed in History Class, and you can subscribe to This
Day in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and
wherever else you get your podcast. Thanks also to Tari
(04:46):
Harrison for her audio editing work on all of these
episodes tuned in tomorrow for an event that led the U. S.
Secret Service to take on a whole new set of
duties beyond chasing down counterfeiters. Just a quick content warning
(05:07):
before we get started today. Today's episode includes mention of
sexual violence, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing,
please skip this episode. What's up, everyone, Welcome to this
Day in History class, where we bring you a new
tidbit from history every day. The day was September nine two.
(05:38):
According to eyewitness accounts, the Great Fire of Smyrna began
in Smyrna in Asia Minor, a port city now known
as Zmer in Turkey. The fire lasted for about nine
days and caused thousands of deaths, though the exact number
of deaths and refugees is unknown. It's also unclear who
(06:00):
who started the fire. Among other conflicting facts surrounding the incident,
Greek sources claimed Turkish soldiers lit Greek and Armenian homes
on fire, while Turkish sources blame Greeks and Armenians for
burning the city. The catastrophe occurred during the Greco Turkish
War of nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty two. Smyrna was
(06:22):
an important commercial port. Along with the status as a
place of significant international economic exchange, it was also a
multicultural society. There were Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Jewish people, Europeans
and Levantine. There were thousands of Muslims and Christians in
the city, though most of the Greeks and Armenians were Christian.
(06:44):
The Turks called Smyrna the city of Infidels since there
were so many Greek and non Muslim people there. From
May of nineteen nineteen until nineteen twenty two, Greek forces
controlled the city. The Treaty of Severa signed in nineteen
twenty gave administrative control of Smyrna to Greece, but provided
that Smyrna remain under Turkish sovereignty. After five years, Smyrna
(07:09):
would decide whether it wished to join Greece or stay
with the Ottoman Empire. But Turkish nationalist leader Mustafa came
All demanded that the Turks take back the land held
by the Ottoman Empire that was given to Greece. The
Greek occupation of Smyrna ended on September nine, after Greek
(07:29):
forces were pushed out of Smyrna and the Turkish Army
of Mustafakemal captured the city. Just four days later, the
Great Fire of Smyrna started. There are many conflicting eyewitness
accounts of how the fire started. Many witnesses said that
Turks used cans of fuel to light structures in the
Greek and Armenian quarters on fire. Reports stated that Turkish
(07:53):
troops set fire to Greek, Armenian and European quarters of
the city, while no damage was done to Turkish neighborhoods.
As Smyrna burned, refugees made their way towards the Key
and Allied ships. Tens of thousands of people gathered on
the waterfront to escape the blaze, but Allied naval ships
(08:14):
had received orders not to intervene as they were afraid
they'd provoke an incident with the Turks. The Turks robbed,
assaulted and killed people, and raped and abducted women and children.
A New York Times article from September nineteen two mentioned
the conditions that refugees faced, including lack of food and clothing,
(08:36):
cold nights, and unsanitary conditions. The article said that quote
fire has accomplished for the Turks, what the sword failed
to do. Asia Minor, the cradle of Christianity, will soon
be depopulated of Christians. Many of those in Smyrna who
were not snatched from death by Americans and other rescuers
(08:57):
are disappearing into the hills, some luntarily, many by force.
Others are dying of exhaustion, fright, or exposure on the
shattered stone waterfront of the benighted city. International news reports,
too were biased. By September six, the fire had subsided,
but violence continued against Greek and Armenian refugees. Mustafa Kemala
(09:22):
declared that Greek and Armenian men between ages eighteen and
forty five would be considered prisoners of war, and many
of them died or were executed. The first Greek ships
sent to rescue refugees entered the harbor on September. The
Turkish and Jewish quarters of the city survived through the blaze,
(09:42):
while the Greek, Armenian and Levantine quarters were destroyed. Though
thousands of refugees made it out of Smyrna, the port
was destroyed. Some historians have said that evidence points to
the Turks starting the fire to get the Greeks to
lead the city, while others usted the Greeks and Armenians
started the fire to damage the Turk's reputation. The conflict
(10:06):
caused a huge refugee crisis. The Treaty of Luzanne, signed
in replaced the Treaty of Several Greeks living in Asia
Minor or Eastern Thrace were required to return to the
Greek homeland. In Turkish nationals and Greek territory were compelled
to return to Turkish homeland. Modern Turkey became a recognized
(10:29):
sovereign nation and replaced the Ottoman Empire. I'm Eves Jeffcote
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. You can learn more about history
by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t
D I HC podcast. Thanks again for listening, and I
(10:53):
hope you come back tomorrow for more delicious morsels of history.
M For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all. Were we running two episodes today, which means
that you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson.
Enjoy the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class
from how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk
of Stuff You Missed in History Class. It's the show
where we explore the past, one day at a time
with a quick look at what happened today in history.
(00:23):
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and it's September.
On this day, Phineas Gauge was struck through the skull
with a tamping iron. Gauge was the formant of a
railroad crew and they were clearing the way for a
railroad by blasting holes in rock through the side of
a hill. There's a several step process. Step one, you
(00:47):
made a hole. Step two was to put gunpowder into
the bottom of the hole. Step three was that the
foreman would put a fuse into the hole. Step four
was that the hole would be filled in with oil
and the foreman would tamp that down with his tamping iron.
Step five was to light the fuse. Another crew, once
(01:08):
the explosion happened, would clear away the rubble while the
first crew went on to dig the next hole. Gage
had done this over and over and over, but on September,
while working outside Cavendish, Vermont, something went wrong. He lowered
his tamping rod, which was made out of iron, to
tamp down the soil, but there wasn't any soil there yet,
(01:31):
so the iron struck rock and it made it spark,
and when the gunpowder exploded, it drove the tamping iron
up under his cheekbone, through the frontal lobe of his brain,
and all the way out of his skull. It landed
several yards away. It was amazing that he survived this
at all. It was also amazing that he survived the recovery.
(01:54):
The germ theory of disease didn't really exist yet. Nobody
had a sense of how to clean a dirty wound
like this and how to keep it from getting infected.
He also lost a lot of blood. He sustained a
number of burns, and the tamping iron, when it flew
through his head, took a chunk of his brain with it.
(02:15):
He might not have even lost consciousness, though, and the
words of the local paper quote the most singular circumstance
connected with this melancholy affair is that he was alive
at two o'clock this afternoon and in full possession of
his reason and free from pain. The medical treatment that
Gauge got after this injury was really based on the
idea of the four humors and how in the body
(02:37):
there were four humors that needed to be kept in balance.
His doctor thought that the blood loss helped him out
in this whole regard. Ultimately, he did recover, although he
lost the eye that had been damaged when the tamping
iron flew behind it through his skull. He did have
some notable changes in his behavior. Though he had been
(03:00):
described before the accident as smart and competent and reliable,
but then after the accident he was described as fitful
and irreverent, profane, impatient, obstinate, capricious, and vacillating. His doctor,
whose account may be a little biased because he was
(03:21):
trying to get attention in a medical journal, described Gauge
is kind of like a child. His friends and family
just said he was no longer Gauge. Although sometimes he's
described as never being able to hold down a steady
job after this, that is not true. He did have
steady work for much of the rest of his life
as well, as long as his health allowed him to
(03:42):
do it. He definitely, though, had different behavior from before.
He died in May of eighteen sixty, so many years
after this accident happened. He was buried on the twenty
three of May that year. Today, Phineas Gauge is famous
in the world of neuropsychology. He came a textbook example
of how different parts of the brain have different functions
(04:05):
and how a brain injury can affect a person's behavior.
He didn't, though, revolutionize the entire state of medicine. Sometimes
you'll read articles that make it sound as though the
reason we have lobotomies is because of Phineas Gauge, and
that's more like people in the present retroactively assigning Phineas
(04:26):
Gauge to the phenomenon of lobotomies when they weren't directly
connected in that way. You can learn more about all
of this in the September eleven episode of Stuff You
Missed in History Class, and you can subscribe to This
Day in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and
wherever else you get your podcast. Thanks also to Tari
(04:46):
Harrison for her audio editing work on all of these
episodes tuned in tomorrow for an event that led the U. S.
Secret Service to take on a whole new set of
duties beyond chasing down counterfeiters. Just a quick content warning
(05:07):
before we get started today. Today's episode includes mention of
sexual violence, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing,
please skip this episode. What's up, everyone, Welcome to this
Day in History class, where we bring you a new
tidbit from history every day. The day was September nine two.
(05:38):
According to eyewitness accounts, the Great Fire of Smyrna began
in Smyrna in Asia Minor, a port city now known
as Zmer in Turkey. The fire lasted for about nine
days and caused thousands of deaths, though the exact number
of deaths and refugees is unknown. It's also unclear who
(06:00):
who started the fire. Among other conflicting facts surrounding the incident,
Greek sources claimed Turkish soldiers lit Greek and Armenian homes
on fire, while Turkish sources blame Greeks and Armenians for
burning the city. The catastrophe occurred during the Greco Turkish
War of nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty two. Smyrna was
(06:22):
an important commercial port. Along with the status as a
place of significant international economic exchange, it was also a
multicultural society. There were Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Jewish people, Europeans
and Levantine. There were thousands of Muslims and Christians in
the city, though most of the Greeks and Armenians were Christian.
(06:44):
The Turks called Smyrna the city of Infidels since there
were so many Greek and non Muslim people there. From
May of nineteen nineteen until nineteen twenty two, Greek forces
controlled the city. The Treaty of Severa signed in nineteen
twenty gave administrative control of Smyrna to Greece, but provided
that Smyrna remain under Turkish sovereignty. After five years, Smyrna
(07:09):
would decide whether it wished to join Greece or stay
with the Ottoman Empire. But Turkish nationalist leader Mustafa came
All demanded that the Turks take back the land held
by the Ottoman Empire that was given to Greece. The
Greek occupation of Smyrna ended on September nine, after Greek
(07:29):
forces were pushed out of Smyrna and the Turkish Army
of Mustafakemal captured the city. Just four days later, the
Great Fire of Smyrna started. There are many conflicting eyewitness
accounts of how the fire started. Many witnesses said that
Turks used cans of fuel to light structures in the
Greek and Armenian quarters on fire. Reports stated that Turkish
(07:53):
troops set fire to Greek, Armenian and European quarters of
the city, while no damage was done to Turkish neighborhoods.
As Smyrna burned, refugees made their way towards the Key
and Allied ships. Tens of thousands of people gathered on
the waterfront to escape the blaze, but Allied naval ships
(08:14):
had received orders not to intervene as they were afraid
they'd provoke an incident with the Turks. The Turks robbed,
assaulted and killed people, and raped and abducted women and children.
A New York Times article from September nineteen two mentioned
the conditions that refugees faced, including lack of food and clothing,
(08:36):
cold nights, and unsanitary conditions. The article said that quote
fire has accomplished for the Turks, what the sword failed
to do. Asia Minor, the cradle of Christianity, will soon
be depopulated of Christians. Many of those in Smyrna who
were not snatched from death by Americans and other rescuers
(08:57):
are disappearing into the hills, some luntarily, many by force.
Others are dying of exhaustion, fright, or exposure on the
shattered stone waterfront of the benighted city. International news reports,
too were biased. By September six, the fire had subsided,
but violence continued against Greek and Armenian refugees. Mustafa Kemala
(09:22):
declared that Greek and Armenian men between ages eighteen and
forty five would be considered prisoners of war, and many
of them died or were executed. The first Greek ships
sent to rescue refugees entered the harbor on September. The
Turkish and Jewish quarters of the city survived through the blaze,
(09:42):
while the Greek, Armenian and Levantine quarters were destroyed. Though
thousands of refugees made it out of Smyrna, the port
was destroyed. Some historians have said that evidence points to
the Turks starting the fire to get the Greeks to
lead the city, while others usted the Greeks and Armenians
started the fire to damage the Turk's reputation. The conflict
(10:06):
caused a huge refugee crisis. The Treaty of Luzanne, signed
in replaced the Treaty of Several Greeks living in Asia
Minor or Eastern Thrace were required to return to the
Greek homeland. In Turkish nationals and Greek territory were compelled
to return to Turkish homeland. Modern Turkey became a recognized
(10:29):
sovereign nation and replaced the Ottoman Empire. I'm Eves Jeffcote
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. You can learn more about history
by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t
D I HC podcast. Thanks again for listening, and I
(10:53):
hope you come back tomorrow for more delicious morsels of history.
M For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
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Gabe Luzier
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