From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   Twenty-five years ago, I defended a chemistry PhD thesis.   
   In the experimental section, many chemical syntheses were   
   described, and often the sentences began with a numerical   
   quantity.  A typical example would be:   
   10.00g sodium was added to a 250mL round bottomed flask.   
      
   One of the committee members told me that no sentence can   
   begin with a number, meaning no sentence can begin with   
   numerical digits.  He crossed out the beginnings of all   
   such lines in my thesis manuscript, which was maybe a fifth   
   of the sentences in the whole book.  Of course, I wanted   
   him to sign the thesis so I could finish, so I changed all   
   of them to one of the forms:   
   Ten grams of sodium were added to a 250ml round bottomed   
   flask.   
   or   
   Sodium (10.00g) was added to a 250ml round bottomed flask.   
   or   
   To a 250ml round bottomed flask was added 10.00g sodium.   
   Which made him happy.   
      
   I have not been able to find this rule in any English   
   Composition text or style guide ever.  Not relating to any   
   type of writing, technical or fiction.  (Sorry in advance   
   if I am completely wrong and it is stated in every rule   
   book.)   
      
   There are certain situations in fiction where one might   
   want to begin a sentence with the Arabic numerals:   
   "100" was lithographed into the green scrollwork at all   
   four corners of each stock certificate.   
      
   Is this acceptable?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)