© 2019 Severina Coldman
2019 — №1 (17)
Keywords: history of medicine, traditional medicine, history of midwifery and gynaecology, myths and superstitions, foretelling future child’s sex
Abstract: The article reviews magical-mystical and traditional religious beliefs about reproductive processes in female organism, that influenced scientific medical knowledge in XIX–XX centuries Russia. Studied are views of specialists of that era on the formation of the future child’s sex.
Author info:
Severina Danovna Koldman is Cand. Sc., Associate Professor at the Department of History of Medicine and Social Sciences, Russian National Medical Research University.
Summary
In the XIX-XX centuries Russia, scientific knowledge was forming in the fields of obstetrics and gynecology. Some studies and discussions among doctors mention alchemic assumptions from the treatise by Albertus Magnus. One of these doctors’ main interests was the formation of the future child’s sex. The woman was thought to be responsible for this differentiation. To avoid the birth of girls, it was considered necessary to take into consideration the bilateral structure of the female body. The right side, warm and dry, is apparently responsible for the conception of boys. It was also advised to have regard for the following factors: living conditions and ethnic origin of the mother-to-be, her religion, nutrition, age, marital status or a lack thereof, and emotional state. Beliefs in mystical reasons for infertility were widespread; the corresponding mystical or astrological ways of healing were proposed.
The article pays special attention to the belief of doctors in “the peculiarities of Jewish childbirth” (prevailing birth of boys in Jewish families). The doctors thought that the reason for this phenomenon was in Moses’ regulation for sexual intercourse, based on the women’s menstrual cycle. The doctors also consider the basis for medical theories the belief in “a depot of vital force” and sexual energy. Economical spending of the physical forces of the parents’ organism apparently allowed to give birth to a healthy, beautiful or even “great” person.
The study of the sources and materials available in the Russian State Library revealed a significant influence of traditional religious and magical-mystical beliefs on the formation of new medical concepts in obstetrics-gynecological practices in the Russian Empire.
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