# Civil servants don't need brains

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-servants-dont-need-brains/680481>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 4, 2014, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-servants-dont-need-brains/680481 "2014-02-04T07:15:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-servants-dont-need-brains/680481/1 "2014-02-04T07:15:06Z")

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French ones, anyway: [http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)61127-1/fulltext](http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2807%2961127-1/fulltext)

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**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-servants-dont-need-brains/680481/2 "2014-02-04T11:26:27Z")

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Perhaps I should explain this a bit more. It is a case report about a man who although he lives a normal life and holds down a job as a French civil servant, has enormously less brain tissue than most people. Most of his head is filled with fluid. He is not particularly intelligent, but he is not mentally handicapped.

I think this may be the first such a case has been properly reported in the scientific literature. There was the case of the British math student (of well above average intelligence this time) with a similarly compressed brain that got some publicity 30 years or so ago, but I do not think a proper clinical description was published.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-servants-dont-need-brains/680481/3 "2014-02-04T14:02:21Z")

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…just a good loud voice.  
–Dr. Edward Morbius, Altair 4