He had a very odd theory about baldness in men. It sounds a little like a
joke, but I believe it was meant in all seriousness. He had observed that
men with a very strong growth of beard were more liable to go bald early
than those who had the hair on the face thin and scanty. He described this
as a kind of _landslip_, I remember, and his idea was that human beings
could only have a small crop of hair, and that a good crop on the chin
meant a failure higher up. And that, he thought, accounted for the fact
that women rarely go bald.

At the time of the visit I have described, our whole family had become
enthusiastic vegetarians--indeed, I may say the whole household of
fourteen, for the servants had followed suit. This was a great pleasure to
Professor Newman, for it was through his writings that my mother had first
become interested in the subject. He had great hopes at one time that she
would also share in some other crusades of his against alcohol, tobacco,
vaccination, etc. etc. He sent her a great number of leaflets and
pamphlets on all these subjects, but though my father was a non-smoker and
almost a total abstainer, he was so from habit and inclination and not
from any pledge, and I do not remember that the Professor made any convert
except myself. I came across a bundle of tracts of his which no one seemed
to be reading, and I devoured them all. For some years, from about the age
of fifteen, I was an enthusiastic follower of Professor Newman, even in
his most extreme ideas. I am afraid he never became aware of this,
however, for of course it was only with the older members of the family
that he would discuss such questions.

The most enjoyable visit we ever had from him was also the last of any
length that he paid us. I think it must have been in the summer of 1879 or
1880, when we were living in the country a few miles from Manchester. It