10th August 1851: On Tuesday evening at Museum, at a ball in the gardens. The night was chill, I dropped too suddenly from Differential Calculus into ladies' society, and could not give myself freely to the change. After an hour's attempt so to do, I returned, cursing the mode of life I was pursuing; next morning I had already shaken hands, however, with Diff. Calculus, and forgot the ladies....
J. Helen Gardner and Robin J. Wilson, "Thomas Archer Hirst - Mathematician Xtravagant II - Student Days in Germany", The American Mathematical Monthly , v. 6, no. 100.
