It is a distinct pleasure to be invited to prepare a short Foreword to Biomedical Research: How to plan, publish and present it, by William F. Whimster. Ninety years have elapsed since T. Clifford Allbutt, the Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Cambridge, published his c1assic work of 1904 Notes on the Composition of Scientific Papers. Small in size, but deep in wisdom, it remains a remarkably useful, if slightly old-fashioned, book, still weIl worth reading. Since 1904, and particularly in the last 25 years, there has been an avalanche of books on scientific style. Medawar has...