No inquiry is more often submitted to the physician by prospective
mothers than this, "Can you tell me if my baby will be a boy or a
girl?" He cannot. Many rules, to be sure, have been advocated as safe
guides toward reaching the correct answer; every midwife possesses
her individual formula which she has "never known to fail." But the
boastful success depends upon the application of some such method as
the following, which I have heard my teacher, Dr. J. Whitridge
Williams, expose to his classes. The patient is asked if a boy or
girl is desired. She confesses, and is then informed that the sex of
her child will be the opposite of her wish. When this guess proves to
be correct, there is no doubt of the prophet's wisdom; when it is
not, his honor is protected, for the parents have had their hope
fulfilled. Their happiness makes them forgetful that the guess was
wrong, or, for that matter, that it was ever made.

It was once believed that the sexes might be distinguished before
birth by the number of heart beats occurring within a minute. In a
general way, the action of this organ in females is somewhat more
rapid than in males; and so it was thought that a rate of 144 or more
indicated the female and a rate of 124 or less the male sex. But
experience has taught that this rule leads to accurate prophecy in no
more than half of the cases. As a matter of fact, no means of
definitely foretelling the sex of the child has been discovered, and
I doubt if it ever can be.

TWINS.--As every one knows, pregnancy commonly terminates with the
birth of a single child. Twins appear in approximately only one of
ninety pregnancies, while triplets are extremely rare. It is true
that even quintuplets may occur, though up to 1904 only 29 authentic