000			03034cam a22003253u 4500
001			78509
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040			_aUtSlPG
041		7	_aen _2iso639-1
050		4	_aQP
100	1		_aErskine, Monteith, Mrs., _d1874-1969
245	1	0	_aSex at choice
264		1	_aSalt Lake City, UT : _bProject Gutenberg, _c2026
300			_a1 online resource : _bmultiple file formats
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_acomputer _bc _2rdamedia
338			_aonline resource _bcr _2rdacarrier
500			_aRelease date is 2026-04-20
508			_aTim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
520			_aSex at Choice by Mrs. Monteith Erskine is a medico-social treatise written in the early 20th century. Aimed at women, it argues that mothers can choose the sex of their children by timing conception within a 28‑day “lunar month” and by exploiting the supposed alternate action of the ovaries (right for boys, left for girls), framing this as both practical guidance and a eugenic good. The work blends personal case records, anatomical description, and social commentary to promote sex pre-determination without birth control. The opening of the book presents a lengthy preface in which the author recounts decades of observation leading to her central claim that sex is fixed before fertilization and is determined solely by the mother, tied to an alternating right/left ovarian cycle and specific fertile days. She dismisses diet, parental age, and animal analogies, embraces “lateral decubitus” traditions, and argues for timing within the lunar month, positioning her method as a humane alternative to birth control and a tool for eugenic selection. An introduction by her husband endorses the publication after years of reticence. Early chapters mix social advocacy and instruction: calls for more male births, infant-welfare measures (especially breastfeeding and circumcision), use of incubators for premature babies, and warnings about miscarriages (claimed mostly male), illegitimacy (claimed to yield more girls), and the effects of drink. She offers anecdotes on sterility “cures” via precise timing and rest, links menstruation patterns to likely offspring sex, outlines basic female anatomy and the “alternate working” of ovaries, and begins practical rules “for a boy,” favoring conception around days 8–15 (especially day 12) from the start of menstruation and only in alternate months. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534			_pOriginally published: _cNew York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1925
653			_aSex -- Cause and determination
700	1		_aErskine, James Monteith, _d1863-1944
856	4		_uhttps://archive.org/details/sexatchoice00erskrich/page/n9/mode/2up
856	4	0	_uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78509
999			_c119227 _d119227