Part 6

Those readers who have followed the argument so far will have gathered from the last chapter the nature of my claim that every normal and healthy woman is able to conceive a girl according to the method indicated. But it is now necessary to touch on the small percentage of women coming under a different category.

It must be repeated that the normal state of every woman is to have one fruitful month followed by one fruitless. The fruitless month affords occasion for conception of both sexes, whereas I am satisfied from the investigation of a very large number of cases that complete immunity from pregnancy exists every other month. These quiescent weeks can easily be discerned by any normal woman, who experiences during that period a sense of partial lack of sexual activity. Thus, out of every eight weeks, the functions have five week’s respite, which affords the recuperative advantages demanded by nature. And so just as there is a blank or fruitless week in the fruit_ful_ month, so there is also a fruitless month in alternation with the fruitful one.

And now we have to discuss a condition of the left ovary which may result in conception taking place during the earlier days of the fruitless month. I refer to the freak action of the “left” ovary. Much confusion of thought and biological error have been caused by this condition, the result of an over-strained civilisation and the increasing artificiality of our mode of life.

In some women, and for some unexplained reason, the left ovary takes upon itself an added activity equal to that of the right ovary, while at the same time the functions of the latter decline until finally it ceases to contribute anything to the reproduction-life of the woman. The left ovary, having acquired so much importance, becomes, as it were, unbalanced with the weight of its responsibilities and runs amok. The ovum is discharged about the twenty-first day, as we have explained before, but instead of dying as the result of non-impregnation, it actually remains in the womb and lives during the whole time of the succeeding period and may even live for several days after this is over. Thus there is now the risk of the ovum becoming fertilised during the early days of a fruitless month, and this state of affairs is entirely due to the condition I have called a “freak” ovary.

Such an activity, foreign to its natural state, may be temporary or lasting according to its subsequent functional history. The result of such investigations as have been made appear to show that among _natives_ of comparatively uncivilised lands, this action of the so-called “freak” ovary is practically non-existent—all the evidence obtainable points to their immunity from the effects of such ovarian breaches of the usual procedure have come to my notice.

And now we are negotiating the rock on which so many enquirers have foundered whilst seeking the causation of sex. The existence of the “freak” ovary has apparently exploded the simple formula of “Boys after, girls before.” The formula would have held good but for the fact of the freak ovary being too common to be overlooked. The vitality of this ovum interfering with the so-called “fruitless month,” in which every _normal_ woman is safe from conception, is most disturbing, and, in the early years of my work, this abnormality caused me much trouble. Now that I have solved the problem I regard this factor as the corner-stone upon which rests the whole structure of my discovery.

Subtle and yet so definite when revealed, the distinct operations of each ovary have given me the key to the explanation of a very baffling question. The month in the ordinary course should be fruitless, because, had the left ovary _menstruated_ and thrown out its ovum seven days or more _before the flow_, it would by the actual day of the period have lost its vitality, and, if unfertilised, been carried off by the flow itself. In its turn the right ovary, when due to menstruate, would leave quiescent the uterus until the actual moment of the period, and discharge its ovum _after_ the third day of the flow, or even later.

With the presence of the “freak” ovary, however, all this is changed. We find the ovum still active and dangerously receptive on the second and third day after cessation of the menses. And so the girl-child, which is conceived _after_ the period (although in a different month to that of the boy) suffices to undermine the old adage, “Girls before, boys after.” It is, no doubt, this anomaly which explains, to a large extent, the utter lack of practical conclusions reached on this question during past centuries of biological thought. The vast numbers of test-cases collected during the last twenty years, and proved to the hilt, entirely dispose of the idea that boys _only_ can be conceived after a period.

But it so happens that girls, if conceived after a period, generally start during the so-called “fruitless” month. Innumerable cases may be cited of girls conceived on the fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth day of period. This is much to be regretted, for it is easy to see that an ovum fertilised during the actual flow of a menstrual period has not the best chance of growing and developing into a healthy infant. The womb is in a perturbed state, and its lining hardly offers a suitable bed on which the delicate ovum can rest.

The Old Testament has warned us sufficiently against this evil.[22] Abortions are liable in the early months of pregnancy, and everywhere we see the results of such intercourse. Many women with skin troubles, blotches, or marked with the ugly “port-wine stain,” or nævus spot, are examples of relations at this period. To every hundred women thus disfigured you will find scarcely one man. Another result of this unwise intercourse is a large number of big moles all over the face, especially on the left side. The fact that this condition is rarely found in men shows that the conception of boys during actual period is very rare, if not almost unknown. The earliest date recorded of boy-conception is the third evening of period. The seventh day is the earliest date probable after menstruation, counting from the first day.

When one realises that conception at the menstrual period is actually due to a morbid condition of the uterus, dependent on a slightly abnormal ovary, one can gauge the undesirability of risking the advent of such offspring. Indeed, it is important that the self-respecting mother should see that no child of hers be tainted with the reproach of the premature intercourse above described.

If girls are conceived in the first three days _after_ period (during the sixth, seventh, eighth days), that is another matter: they may be the healthy offspring of a slightly abnormal mother who generally can only conceive at that _one_ time. For instance, Lady D. writes:

I can never start a baby at any time except immediately after my period. It is always “early” and too profuse.... I have three girls, and do not seem able to have a boy.

It should, however, be understood clearly that no woman, in a normal healthy state, conceives girls in the “fruitless month.” Invariably all the cases observed of this nature occur among women suffering from the results either of a severe boy-confinement, or an abortion which has seriously affected the male ovary and left it in a diseased state. Again it may happen where the right ovary is naturally weak or has been injured in early youth. From India, a lady writes:

I have a little girl ... but I had several miscarriages before she arrived, from which I have never rightly recovered. It was partly the climate, and also I did far too much....

Mrs. B. wrote to me from East Africa:

I shall be forty next birthday. My first was a girl, then came a boy born at six months, who only lived a few hours, and I was desperately ill. Then came three girls in succession.

With regard to the offspring of the freak ovary, there certainly seems to result a less healthy pregnancy all the way through, a more difficult and generally premature confinement, and a smaller and weaker infant. I should add, however, for the comfort of mothers, that these children, given suitable environment, often grow up to be as fine and healthy as those generated from a more normal ovary.

It is only right to acknowledge that, in the researches which have enabled me to fathom the complex problem of the “freak” ovary, my best friend has often proved to be my sex. It takes a thief to catch a thief—it required the intuitive brain of a woman to understand another woman, and to investigate with success the most capricious of her organs.

XIII

LATERAL DECUBITUS

“Lie on the right for a boy, on the left for a girl.”—ALBERTUS MAGNUS.

Whenever I am asked to provide a formula for the benefit of those seeking advice on the subject of pre-determination, I have always expressed the opinion that a slight inclination to the right, during and after intercourse, is helpful to the conception of boys, and vice versa for girls. No doubt this flavours of an “old wives’ tale,” and is not new to many married folk. Indeed, it was known as far back as 1582, when Albertus Magnus gave his support to the theory, which subsequently remained a more or less popular idea. At the same time, it is interesting to note that anatomy supports this time-honoured theory in every way. Stock-breeders still make use of it when they place a mare or cow on ground sloping away from the side they wish fertilised. But it succeeds only when they happen to fall on the month suitable to the discharge of the ovum desired.

When I touch on the relation of animals to my theme I do not mean to imply that they function on parallel lines to women, as regarding the alternate month. It is true that the principal laws of nature apply to them in similar fashion, but in this case there is a distinct difference. A certain veterinary surgeon was, in a hundred cases, successful in the use of “side-sloping” with cattle, but the lack of further knowledge concerning times and dates produced the small number of exceptions which acted as a deterrent to renewed efforts in this direction. And yet there should really be no difficulty as to times and dates, the only problem being to select the male month or the female.

Thus a heifer should be watched from the time of the first “rut,” which means the activity of the left ovary. Her times, right and left, should be systematically noted from then on, until she goes to the bull. If the first calf be a heifer, the next heat will accompany activity of the right ovary. A month should be skipped (a good thing in itself for the vitality of her next progeny) and the following heat fertilised if another heifer is required. A well-known doctor in South Africa made observations on a cow he owned in 1897 which had a bull-calf at foot; she had a heifer-calf the next year. He then tried the experiment of missing the next rut—that is twenty-one days after the birth of the heifer, by keeping the cow stalled for a month. She was then allowed to mate, with the result that the next calf was a heifer. He repeated this three times in succession, each time obtaining a heifer. To prove that the cow was normal he allowed her to mate within three weeks of the birth of the last heifer and she gave a bull-calf. This satisfied him that sex can be regulated at will, and that the whole question lies within the functions of the female. That is just one clear case in point, but innumerable similar successes have been recorded by others who have experimented on these lines. The differences of the organic functions of a mare or cow explain why there can be no question of “before or after,” as in the case of women. But one thing I have observed, and that is the importance of taking advantage of the early “heat” to ensure success for a heifer, while the later “heat,” or the second day of the “heat” is more suitable for a male pregnancy.

With regard to the position of the fœtus in the cow, there is a marked difference according to the sex of the fœtus. If heavy with bull-calf, she will usually lie on her right side; similarly it will be noticed that the weight and movements are much more to the right and the side will be most inclined to hang. With female progeny the conditions are reversed. The left side is now the largest and heaviest, and the cow will lie on it most readily.

In animals producing numerous offspring each time, such as cats, rabbits, etc., both ovaries function simultaneously. The spermatozoa must run equally into both sides of their uterus, for the reason that it is not a simple cavity, but divided by a deep cleft into two parts with a corresponding projection inside the cavity. Therefore, as cats and rabbits have litters of mixed sexes, it is impossible to draw inference beforehand as to their condition.

Then, just as two conditions, time and position, are necessary for the successful fertilisation of cattle, so must the three following conditions be accepted by women, if the results are to be what they desire:

1. The fruitful month must be assured. This cannot be foretold until after the birth of the first child, but it is of little importance compared with the second and third conditions.

2. The day, in the fruitful month, proper to the sex desired must be carefully chosen.

3. The inclination to right or left, which assists access of the seminal fluid to the male or female Fallopian tube must be observed.

Among all the theories for sex-determination advanced of late years, that concerning Lateral Decubitus is the best supported by evidence. Dr. R. von Braun discovered the earliest evidence of pregnancy in a furrow which forms and divides the uterus into two _lateral halves_ differing in shape, the pregnant half and the non-pregnant. Montgomery speaks of a “boy conceived after the period” and lying “in the right iliac region,” whose mother had complained of muscular pains “round the right Fallopian tube.” Dr. Tuckey, on several occasions, found that the position of the placenta, (the vascular bed to which the fœtus is attached and through which it is nourished) differed according to the sex of the fœtus. It was, in many instances, attached to the left side of the mid-line when the child was a girl, to the right when it was a boy, Montgomery mentions also that a “female fœtus is turned towards the left side.” There is much evidence to show that a girl fœtus is always carried in this position, while the boy faces to the right. Hence the movements are felt towards the left with a girl and towards the right with a boy.

It may often be observed that a woman starting a female pregnancy is quite unconsciously inclined to hold her left side, as if experiencing a slight discomfort. With her, the first movements of the child will be felt in the left groin, while in a boy-pregnancy the opposite will be the case. I have by me a letter from a Mrs. B., which runs as follows:

I had a very bad pain on the _left_ side, when my last girl was born. My periods are always early now.

Mrs. M. writes:

I have had four sons ... in carrying the last two I used to get severe pains in my right groin, caused, I was told, by pressure.

Lady R. writes:

I always lie on my right side: in fact, I feel comfortable in no other position.

She had three sons.

I have frequently been able to diagnose the sex of the child as early as nine weeks after conception, by the presence of a small round protuberance which appears high in the left groin if a girl, lower down to the right side if a boy. In a fair number of cases I have found the fœtus lying so much to one side or the other that the opposite side appears to be filled only with a fluid, so soft and elastic is it compared to the other. When this condition prevails one can foretell the sex with _unerring certainty_. The woman pregnant of a male child, according to French authorities, walks right foot foremost, and the right breast will be harder and larger than the left. These differences, of course, are not so discernible in some women as in others.

In the matter of symptoms there is a distinct dissimilarity between boy and girl-pregnancies, which also goes to prove the theory of right or left sides. For instance a woman with male pregnancy will complain of cramp down the right leg, and of soreness in the right breast. The reverse will be found in girl-pregnancy. Less sickness is experienced in boy-pregnancies, and there the mother suffers much less from the presence of distressing “whites.” Many women suffer from the latter to a most troublesome degree when carrying a girl, although with their male pregnancies they experience nothing of the kind.

The movements of a male fœtus are stronger, heavier, and slower than in the opposite sex, and so also is the pulsation of the placenta. It is easier to locate the heart-beat of the male than the female fœtus. It can generally be located by the use of a stethoscope, and if it be a male fœtus, the beats will be low down in the right groin: or if the position be sessile (one in which the breech is presenting) the heart-beat will be high up on the right side. With a girl the beats will be heard either low on the left side or towards the mid-line, and if sessile, high up on the left side. In any case they are always more difficult to discern, as the girl lies to the left with the heart turned away from the surface of the womb. In certain cases the heart-beats of the female fœtus have been heard on the right side, especially where the child has been extremely lively and restless. But it may safely be said that, in nearly every case where this has been noted, the mother was suffering from a kind of semi-sterility, where the uterus appeared to be governed wholly by the left ovary, which in such cases assimilates the characteristics of the right ovary, and thus the woman is sterile in regard to one sex.

It should be remembered of course that the uterus naturally inclines to the right, and in some cases the attraction to the left, noticeable in a female pregnancy, does not take place spontaneously. Especially will this be so if there be a strong adhesion binding the womb to the right ovary. Such adhesions often bring about a disability of that ovary, although the fœtal position may appear, falsely, to indicate a _male_ pregnancy.

It must be here pointed out, that, as a general rule, it is rather the exceptional and abnormal cases that are brought to a doctor’s notice, and seldom those that are healthy or normal. This, no doubt, fully explains why so often medical men have been led to make their deductions from evidence quite contrary to that to be found, if looked for, in the great majority of normal cases.

When all is said and done then, it may be safely concluded that for useful purposes Lateral Decubitus, though not, perhaps, a potent factor, may prove of use in the pre-determination of sex. It is certainly a popular theory, and so far no evidence has been adduced sufficient to disprove its relative efficacy, while some support can be gained from the facts of female anatomy. I have given it in my formula for many years, and so far have never had it disputed, or even questioned.

XIV

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS: AFTER-EFFECTS

“Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend, A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend.”—POPE.

I have already in a previous chapter remarked upon the noticeable differences which arise between male and female pregnancy.

A boy may possibly cause a difficult first confinement not only because he comes into the world with a larger head, but also because his average weight is one pound more than that of a girl. It is some compensation to know that the after-effects of a boy-confinement frequently prove more pleasant and straightforward than those which attend upon the birth of a girl.

It is often said that the majority of still-born babies are boys, though this has never been fully proved, probably because so many still-born illegitimates are not registered; my own experience is rather to the contrary. “Placenta prævia” more often occurs with female issue, and it is generally due to the fertilised ovum embedding itself in the anterior or posterior wall of the uterus near the cervix. It may be that the position of the left ovary, which is on a higher level in the pelvis during intercourse, accounts for this frequent aberration of the ova.

Phlebitis, or inflammation of the veins, is likewise a more common complaint with girl-confinements. It is explained by the fact that any activity on this side more directly affects the functions of the heart. After the advent of a girl-baby, obstinate backache and symptoms of depression are also frequently noticeable, owing to the weaker ovary having greater difficulty in the healing of the corpus luteum and in the control of its own more obstinate discharge. Attention is called to this by the provision in Leviticus “If a woman have conceived seed, and borne a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days ... she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days ... but if she bear a maid-child, then she shall be unclean two weeks ... she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three score and six days.”[23] The Jews thus made allowance for the discharge lasting twice as many days after the birth of a female child as after the birth of a male.

There is no doubt whatever, that, even if the left ovary is not rendered _hors de combat_ more easily than the right, it will always give the maximum of trouble on the smallest pretext. During pregnancy there may sometimes be a slight “show” at the ninth week, and sometimes after, which, though generally fairly trifling, is sufficient to be alarming. With a boy-pregnancy this may occur in the fifth week, but should it happen later on, it would mean a mishap. With a girl-pregnancy, however, it may often happen, and does not necessarily impede the satisfactory development of the female fœtus. Brierre de Boismont states that out of 1,200 cases, eight showed menstruation during the second, third and fourth months after conception, three showed menstruation occurring throughout the whole period of pregnancy, and one was the case of a woman who menstruated throughout her eight pregnancies.[24] Dr. Nicholson, writing from St. John’s Island, says: “A regular monthly discharge during pregnancy is not an infrequent occurrence in this island, particularly with the whites of a sanguine temperament.”[25] It would be safe to say that the result of such an anomaly would be the birth of a girl, for I do not know of a single case of a boy living longer than a few days, or possibly weeks, after such a gestation.

The first sure symptom of parturition with a female child is generally a “show.” In the case of male issue, in normal circumstances, this is rarely observed until after the waters are discharged. In fact, in practically 80 per cent. of all cases, the parturition of boys begins with the breaking of the waters. A similar proportion of girls herald their advent with a slimy mucus followed by red discharge. These facts go far to confirm the old French saying that “the sanguine temperament begets boys, and the lymphatic begets girls.” It may be that the male child assimilates more red globules and sanguineous tissue in its composition, whilst the female feeds readily on the _lymphus_ and white particles of blood nutriment.