conception occur in the early menstrual flow, i.e., from the third day
to the sixth day of the period. The greater majority of _normal_ male
conceptions occur between the eighth and fifteenth day, counting from the
very beginning of the period. _The twelfth day is certainly the fruitful
day_, par excellence, _for the conception of male offspring_, experience
having afforded conclusive proof that the ovum proceeding from the right
ovary is then at the height of its receptivity. It must, however, be
borne in mind that a boy can only be conceived every alternate month, one
month being fruit_ful_ and one fruit_less_. This is further dealt with
in a subsequent chapter. In my formula I have always given the fifth day
after cessation of the period as the most likely date, allowing a full
seven days for the duration of the menstrual period. The reason for
allowing seven days to elapse before risking pregnancy is, that, although
the actual flow may only last three or four days, the uterus remains in
a perturbed state for a whole week, and the ensuing muscular flabbiness
is not propitious to really healthy offspring. It is interesting to refer
to the Law of the Talmud, which goes to prove that the fourteenth day was
largely utilized by the Jews. The direction in Leviticus is “But if she
be cleansed of her issue, then shall she number to herself seven days,
and after that she shall be clean, and on the eighth day”[18]....
I have known many cases where male-conception occurred on the fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth days respectively from the beginning of the
period. One happened for certain on the eighteenth day, though this is
exceptional. Such belatedness may easily cause a meeting of two ova, as
it were, in the so-called “blank week”; one a male ovum and the other a
female, which may possibly have been thrown into the tube as early as ten
days before menstruation. If these two happen to be fertilised on the
same day, or within two days of each other, the result will probably be
the conception of mixed twins.
Generally, however, the disappointed ovum, if unfertilised, perishes
on or about the fifteenth day, for its life, unlike that of the
spermatozoon, is only a matter of days. With the ovum thus dead the
uterus is unable, for the next six or eight weeks, to conceive a male
child, since, before the next male ovum is due, the fruitless month must
elapse.
If, on the other hand, fertilisation takes place, the uterus closes up
entirely, jealously guarding the precious ovum that has now become a
male embryo. From the first month of conception the embryo is alive, and
its sex fully determined. It is an amazing fact that many people still
believe that sex can be determined any time after pregnancy until the
child quickens. Again and again I have been asked how to change the sex
of an unborn infant that was well on its way. People seem to think that
a wave of the magic wand, a special diet, or some form of treatment can
transform a full-blown girl-embryo into a boy fœtus, or vice versa!
It is equally childish to imagine that the embryo does not enjoy vitality
from the first moment of its existence. The virtue which proceeds from
the fertilisation of this germ has such prodigious power that the
whole being of the woman, in mind and body, undergoes a subtle change.
Many women are affected in various ways almost immediately. Some are
the victims of nausea and vomiting which last either for the first
two or three months, or for the whole time of gestation, and are most
distressing and difficult to alleviate. Others suffer acutely from
heartburn, cramp, undue salivation, and other disabilities.
As regards the movements of a fœtus, they may be detected by a doctor
long before the mother discerns them. Possibly she will not feel them
until the fifth month or sixth month of pregnancy, especially if she is
of a passive and lymphatic nature. The quickening occurs earlier with
boys than with girls. Hippocrates maintained that as a rule the male is
felt at three months and the female at four, on account of the greater
strength of the male.[19] Dr. Hamilton knew of quickening in the eleventh
week.[20] Denman says “quickening may happen from the tenth to the
twenty-fifth week, but it occurs most commonly about the sixteenth.”[21]
I have found in the majority of cases that with boy-pregnancies it occurs
at sixteen weeks and with girl-pregnancies at seventeen or eighteen.
“Quickening” is caused by a change in the position of the uterus, which,
on account of its increased weight, suddenly rises above the pelvis, thus
enabling the movements of the fœtus to be discerned for the first time.
During the first three months or so the uterus seems to be flatter with
a male pregnancy than with a female. This condition prevails up to the
time of quickening, when the very opposite occurs. The explanation of
this is simple. When the male ovum leaves the ovary and, after the
menstrual flow, is fertilised, it finds little or no preparation for its
nutriment in the decidua, from which it is to derive its support. Hence
its inception is characterised by considerably less spontaneous vitality
and development. The female ovum, on the other hand, starts its embryo
existence with all the unwasted accumulations of a uterus which has not
discharged its contents for three weeks or more. But, as the pregnancy
advances, the male embryo makes up for lost time, and thrives apace on
the more generous supply of nutrition provided by the larger male ovary.
With advanced male pregnancies, too, there is generally a distinct
protuberance on the right side in front. The weight of the fœtus is
thrown towards the right, and a characteristic of male-pregnancy is that
it allows of a freer walk and less awkward bearing. A lady pregnant with
a boy, describes her condition as follows:
I am very large, but it is all in front. I am so nervous lest
it should be another girl, but the movements are certainly on
the right side.
Another lady who subsequently gave birth to a son, wrote:
I feel all the violent kicking on the right side and I have
cramps down my right thigh.
The male sex of a child often tends to cause an extension of the term of
gestation beyond its natural limits. This is mainly due in my opinion
to the larger size and greater elasticity of the right horn of the
uterus, and also to the superior powers of nutriment of the larger ovary.
Although quickening occurs earlier in male-pregnancy than female, the
movements of the female embryo are generally quicker and less powerful.
We may certainly conclude that Nature intended women to produce more boys
than girls, and that, with this end in view:
1. She provided the girl-child with more male ova in her right organ than
female ova in her left.
2. She rendered easier the fertilisation of the right side ovary by
placing the right cornu of the uterus, the tube and the ovary, in the
more attainable position in the pelvis.
3. She made the right ovary and tube larger than the left and provided
more seminal fluid for them to carry.
These facilities for the increase of males are the more necessary and
desirable when we consider:
1. The greater tendency to abortion with male-pregnancies.
2. The great care which must be exercised with first children, if they be
boys.
3. The lack of proper means for rearing male prematures born under seven
months.
4. The extra attention that is always required by boy-children in the
way of feeding, warmth, and such necessary treatment as circumcision.
When we have overcome these disabilities, we shall have made a very
definite step forward. But even so we shall not be able to obtain a
reasonable proportion of males and females until proper use is made
of the simple law of determination, with which I have dealt, however
imperfectly, in this chapter.
[Illustration: FRUITFUL MONTH NORMAL STATE]
Now, for the benefit of the uninitiated and for those unacquainted with
medical terms, I intend to make a brief and simple summary of the points
outlined, so that any woman who desires to have male issue can make
personal use of them.
Union should occur from the third day to the tenth day after cessation of
period. The fifth day after the period or in other words, the twelfth day
from its commencement, is the most certain date for conception.
It will be noticed by the careful reader that the times mentioned are of
a very limited duration. My motto is “safety first,” but I do not wish to
imply that other dates are wholly impossible for male conception.
To make sure of not having female issue marital relation must be avoided
for ten days before each period and for three days after.
X
THE “BLANK WEEK”
“Great Nature spoke; observant man obeyed.”—POPE.
Having dealt with the workings of the right ovary, perhaps the simplest
plan to follow now would be to examine the action of the uterine organs
from day to day throughout the lunar month in their proper order. It is
not very generally understood that the lunar month of every woman holds
a “blank week,” or kind of close-time, during which no conception can
occur. Yet this is true of all normal women who function regularly, and
the exceptions merely go to prove the rule. Thus, _given that the menses
be regular_, and counting from the first day of the period, a blank week
exists from the sixteenth to the twenty-first day of the lunar month.
During that time both ovaries, male and female, are temporarily in
a state of apparently complete inactivity. This is what actually
happens. In the first week of the lunar month, counting from the period
of menstruation, the ovum is discharged. Then follow eight days of
expectancy, when fertilisation may have taken place, but after that the
womb becomes atrophied, and from that time (i.e. the sixteenth to the
twenty-first day) provided she be regular, a woman may safely consider
herself immune from fertilisation. If more wives were aware of this fact,
many would take advantage of the “immunity” to shield themselves from a
too large or too rapid increase of family. In contrast with the drawbacks
of so-called “preventive measures,” this is a harmless and innocent means
of prevention offered by natural laws.
Unfortunately every woman is _not_ normal, and there are some who may
never benefit from a “blank week.” This occurs where the period is
habitually too early, often as much as a week or ten days before it is
due. In such cases the “blank week” has been trespassed upon, the next
period is already on its way, and no respite has been allowed to the
harassed uterus. Such indications point to a state of weakness sometimes
no more than temporary, and, with proper treatment and care may in time
be remedied. But such a condition frequently denotes serious ill-health,
such as anæmia, which, if allowed to continue, will cause much trouble.
It is also at the root of many abortions.
On the other hand, where the period is retarded for two or three days,
or more, the “blank” week may develop into a close-time of ten days or
a fortnight. This state of affairs is usually beneficial both to the
uterus, and to the general health of the individual. It should, in fact,
be stated that the “late” period is a sign of strength, and as long as
it is not attended by any other troubles, or by distressing “white
discharges” in between the periods, should cause no kind of anxiety.
Most healthy young girls are “late” for many years after menstruation
begins, and sometimes go on for four months without a period. These girls
I have found to be quite healthy and normal, enjoying easy confinements
in married life, in contrast to those who are perpetually troubled by
“early” or even “regular to the day” courses and by an over-profuse
catamenial flow.
[Illustration: FRUITFUL MONTH SHEWING BLANK WEEK OBLITERATED BY PERIOD
COMMENCING A WEEK TOO SOON]
It is the latter class of women who are far more susceptible to the
fertilisation of the female ova. With persons of rarer and “late”
periods, the very opposite conditions prevail. To take a few instances,
a woman I know had but one day of actual “flow” every six weeks and
invariably relied on a “blank” of twenty days. She gave birth to seven
boys, but not a single daughter. Again a certain French peasant woman
only had a day’s period every two months; her family consisted of three
boys and no girls. An American lady, who gave birth to eight sons and one
girl, had a period regularly every five weeks, lasting half a day only.
Her first-born was the girl, and it was remarkable that, in early married
life, she had been more “regular” with scanty periods.
A lady wanting a son wrote to me as follows:
I fear my periods are very irregular—always three weeks late. I
have never had a mishap and am very healthy and robust.
She had two boys in succession.
Another wrote:
I am very regular, but invariably “late,” 32 days being the
usual time.
She had sons only.
Another letter runs thus:
Before the birth of my girl I was always very regular at 28
days; now somehow I am always “late.”
Her three following children were boys.
I could give innumerable cases in further support of this contention.
In a like manner my available evidence goes to prove the tendency to
girl-pregnancies among women of profuse and “early” periods. This is
readily understood, when one considers how easily the “blank” week may
cease to exist, obliterated by the over-active left ovary, so that the
unfortunate wife becomes the mother of an unlooked-for girl. Every
alternate month the danger is present, and, though often avoided, may
sooner or later cause the advent of a daughter.
A lady writes thus:
My periods are very profuse and always too early; I long for a
son, but have had only four girls.
Another writes:
I never have more than ten days entirely free ... but my
confinements have been quite normal ... I have two little girls.
With the women of rare and scant menstruation, on the other hand, the
“blank” week is very real and reliable.
Lady A. wrote to me as follows:
What you tell me about the blank week I have heard discussed,
and some of my friends make use of it.... Twenty years ago,
Lady E., a very old friend of mine, said to me in private:
“Now, my dear, I do wish you would warn my niece not to have
any more children. She is shocked at the idea of preventives,
but were you to tell her all about the ‘blank week,’ as my
mother told me, I am sure she would make full use of it.”
The mere fact of the right ovary remaining quiescent till its appointed
time proves that the _male_ ovary is probably the healthiest and the most
likely to produce ova for fertilisation. The right ovary unless diseased
is _never_ too early. This is chiefly due to its being naturally stronger
and more self-contained, and discharging its ovum _after_ the period has
actually begun. Where the periods are too early, it will be generally
found that one ovary works quicker than the other, and that this ovary is
the _left_.
Thus it is possible for three weeks to elapse after one period, four
after the next or two weeks one time, three and a half the next and so
on. If it happens that the male ovary is also “early,” after years of
irregularity, this is because of a “_reflex_” activity, resulting from
the insistent stimulus of the left side.
Generally speaking, just as a tendency to constipation bespeaks in any
given person better health than proneness to diarrhœa, so the longer
“blank” week and the “later” period prove more strength in a woman than
the “early” and profuse menstruation. The latter trouble needs drastic
treatment; the former responds to gentle coaxing and modifying.
Having thus shown the existence of a “blank” week, which provides
_immunity from conception_ to every female enjoying normal health and
regular menstruation, we now arrive at the twenty-first day of a woman’s
lunar month. Adhering to my programme, let us proceed to examine what
occurs, in every normal woman, after the completion of the third week of
this fruitful month.
I hope my readers will be clear in their minds, in so far as we have
arrived at the point already demonstrated.
(1) When male children are safely and easily begotten.
(2) When the blank week affords nature’s means of repose to the organs of
procreation.
XI
FOR A GIRL
“And binding nature fast in fate
Left free the human will.”—POPE.
On the twenty-first day of a woman’s lunar month a change occurs in the
uterus. Activity commencing in the left ovary affects the whole being in
a greater or lesser degree. Slight pains are experienced in the back, and
the sensitive and highly strung feel a tenderness in the left breast and
left thigh, as in the same way during the next month such pains may be
felt on the right side. The left ovary has become restive, and, already
seven days, and sometimes nine, before her “flow” is due, has ruptured
the Graafian follicle, setting free the female ovum. This premature
rupture of the vesicle, with the bursting of the Graafian follicle, is
brought about by the actual formation of the “female” ovary, and, its
development being less than and its retentive qualities inferior to those
of the right side, the female ovum is often launched as much as nine
days before its menstrual flow is due. The life of this ovum, like that
of all ova, is from eight to fifteen days, and, in a normal woman, it is
receptive to fertilisation from the twenty-first to the twenty-eight day
of the lunar month which terminates with the next period.
Thus in all normal cases, the twenty-first day of the lunar month, or the
_seventh day before the next period is the most likely day for conception
of the female offspring_. Healthy and regular cases are in a large
majority; indeed, among native women, untouched by modern civilisation,
they are probably the general rule.
A lady writes:
I have three little girls ... and they were all started _before
the period_.... I seem never to be able to conceive at any
other time.
Another says:
I was told that boys were conceived _seven days before the
period_. I tried this method, but _it was a girl_.
Herein lies the true explanation of the fact that nearly all first
children, who are not “prematures,” and born within the first nine and
a half months of marriage, are girls. The bride generally arranges that
her wedding shall take place the second week, after the period is safely
over. She thus carefully selects for her marriage a date, at least ten
days after the expiration of menstruation; which, if it happens to be the
fruitful month, will fall in with the girl-conception time. And, if she
conceives, _her first child is bound to be a girl_.
In order to make sure of my ground, and in deference to the expressed
wishes of many gynæcologists, I have taken statistics relating to this
over a number of years, running into a thousand cases, with the result
that 80 per cent. confirm my dicta—than which there could hardly be
better proof. If to these statistics is added the fact of the greater
activity of the left ovary in young womanhood, I submit that the
combination of conditions renders my statement of the facts almost
irrefutable.
There are many women who can only conceive a girl on the last three
days before the period is due, showing that in their case the ovum is
discharged shortly before the flow starts. Other women again are unable
to conceive at any time except on the very day the period is actually
due—I know of many such; they all had _girls_ and never a son. But in all
these cases I have found a certain morbidity of the uterine condition,
combined with a tendency to hysteria and nervous disorders.
The closely impending flow, though not yet present, must render
the existence of the germ precarious, and is usually conducive to
bearing-down sensations at the menstrual times. This is often accompanied
by a slight “show,” which may cause alarm, though not necessarily in any
way a serious matter.
Here let me state most definitely for the benefit of those mothers
who desire female issue, that the great majority of girl-infants are
conceived _on the seventh or eighth day before the period is due_, those
being by far the most actively receptive days for female pregnancies. It
is the seventh day that I have always advocated in my formula, and on
that day, in all normal cases, the strongest girl-babies are conceived.
It must be remembered by those wishing to profit by my formula that
a girl can be conceived only every alternate month, one month being
fruitful and one fruitless.
It is not difficult to find out which month is fruitful, but it is
perhaps wiser to avoid confusing the issue by making calculations with
regard to this contingency.
In order to avoid male issue relations must not take place for ten days
after each period.
XII
THE FREAK OVARY
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.