One of the central tenets in Thomas Kuhn's (1970) famous book on scientific growth and revolution is that normal, vigorous fields of science present many unsolved, but soluble, problems and questions. Pursuit of this premise leads to the paradox that if a scientific monograph is to be a success, it must also be a failure. When all holes and doubts are filled, when the approach has been prodded and viewed from all angles, when it has been pulled apart and put together in every possible way, when the definitive review has been written, then the field is closed to future investigation and withers as a scientific pursuit. The information represented by the science may still be used by technologists in various applications, but scientists show little interest. They have moved on to the next challenge.

This book does not endanger allometry as a scientific field. Instead the book should be a sufficiently successful failure that it encourages others to study and advance our knowledge of biological scaling. There is certainly room for improvement. Even as a review, this book is incomplete because it ignores the rich Soviet literature. Other gaps in our knowledge are indicated throughout the text. These should appear as interesting opportunities for further research.

Although testing proposed relations is an essential part of science, surprisingly few tests are encountered in allometry. This is a major flaw.