XXVII.—The Molluscan Stomach

Although there have been many accounts of the anatomy, and a small number of the function of the stomach of a variety of molluscs, there has been little or no comparative study of an organ which recent work has shown to be largely responsible for the simultaneous performance of a large number of different components of the entire physiology of the digestive tract. To make such a comparative account on the basis of previously published descriptions would, in fact, have proved an impossible task, as it has become apparent during the course of this work that adequate emphasis has never been laid upon the minutiæ of gastric structure or function, and it is upon these that a correct comparative interpretation must rest.