Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Growth} in Biology and in Education 185
Because of the large number of significant variables that can
affect growth, the growth law has rather limited predictive powers.
For example, I have determined the growth of a fungus on a
simple medium under carefully controlled conditions. I have
determined growth curves when different amino acids or vitamins
were included in the medium. From these data I would like to
predict what will happen when I use other vitamins or amino
acids singly or in combinations. But from the growth data which
I have accumulated I cannot predict new situations. Of course,
I can say that if growth occurs at all, its plot will be an S curve.
Also, if I have controlled the amount of energy food, I can usually
predict the level of the stationary phase; but that is all. As a
predictive tool, the growth law has not yet proved very fertile.
Von Bertalanffy (21) has related, in many animal species, the
metabolic rate of an organism to the type of growth curve produced
by the organism. He says that there are three classes of
animals as determined by plotting their growth curves and that
the class to which an animal belongs can be predicted from a
determination of the "metabolic type" of the organism. Thus,
this work, "aimed at establishing connections between metabolism
arid growth," has greatly extended the importance of growth
studies and, the author says, forms the basis for a gener.al growth
theory.
Studies on the relative quantitative growth of different parts
of a single organism, called "allometric growth," have produced
a law of fairly wide applicability among both animals and plants.
This law can be stated simply by saying that if the logarithm of
the measurement of one organ is, plotted against the logarithm of
the measurement of another organ of the same animal, and if
this is repeated several times during growth, the points will fall
on a straight line. Bonner (I) considers this law of allometric
growth to be descriptive only and without the capacity to reveal
hidden biological secrets.
Because the law of allometric growth compares two organs of
one organism, it can be expected to be free from many fluctuations
due to internal or external environmental factors; thus, in
the future it may have great value when eventually it is related