556 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
we are to forget the purpose of quantitative work we must emphasize that method 
which agrees with the greater number and the more significant qualitative, in the 
present case biological, facts. 
The most significant difference between the two viewpoints relates to the rate 
of growth. Many physiological processes are considered on a relative basis. To 
use a familiar example, the metabolic rate is measured by the oxygen consumption 
or the heat production per unit of time per unit of weight or of body surface. This 
is obviously necessary to permit the comparison of rates in animals of widely differing 
sizes. Minot early recognized and clearly stated the biological significance of the 
relative growth rate which he expressed, as a first approximation, on a percental basis 
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Age (years) 
Figure 9.— Relative growth rate of clams from 10 localities plotted on age 
(1891, 1908). A number of authors have followed Minot in this. It will be sufficient 
to cite Meyer (1914), Murray (1925), and Schmalhausen (1929), who considers the 
relative rate (~j^ • ~ y as “die wahre Wachs tumsgeschwindigke.it.” 
If, following the above investigators, we consider the relative rate, the clams 
show the most rapid growth at the youngest age for which we have data. An 
example will make this clear. On the Swickahak beach the gross growth in length 
during the first growing season is 0.38 centimeter, in the twelfth growing season 0.36 
centimeter. If we consider these as absolute increments they are essentially the 
same, but as in the first case the growth is made from the egg with a diameter of 
