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.