Peter Langer, Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Gießen, Germany.

This volume of the series Handbook of Zoology deals with the anatomy of the gastrointestinal digestive tract ¿ stomach, small intestine, caecum and colon ¿ in all eutherian orders and suborders. It presents compilations of anatomical studies, as well as an extensive list of references, which makes widely dispersed literature accessible.
Introductory sections to orders and suborders give notice to biology, taxonomy, biogeography and food of the respective taxon.
It is a characteristic of this book that different sections of the post-oesophageal tract are discussed separately from each other. Informations on form and function of organs of digestion in eutherians are discussed under comparative-anatomical aspects. The variability and diversity of anatomical structures represents the basis of functional differentiations.