Book excerpt: Physiology of Mollusca, Volume II focuses on the physiology of mollusks, as well as feeding, digestion, mechanics of the heart, metabolism, and pigmentation. The selection first offers information on feeding and digestion, including Amphineura, Gastropoda, Bivalvia, anatomy of the gut, movement of food, and digestive diverticula. The text then elaborates on feeding and digestion in cephalopods and heart, circulation, and blood cells. Discussions focus on food and feeding, mechanics of heart and circulation, control of the heart, cardioregulatory substances, and blood cells. The publication considers respiration, molluscan hemoglobin and myoglobin, and molluscan hemocyanins. The text then examines the pigmentation of mollusks, carbohydrate and nitrogen metabolism, physiology of the nervous system, and sense organs. Topics include indole pigments, sugar and polysaccharides, metabolism of nitrogenous compounds, terminal products of nitrogen metabolism in mollusks, and synaptic transmission. The selection is a dependable reference for readers interested in the physiology of mollusks.