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Despite its distinctly equine title, this paper is actually the first to claim Mendelian inheritance of polydactyly in cats!

This brief paper starts with a response to Castle's query about long-haired "Wonder" horses, published in the same journal just a few weeks earlier (see previous commentary). Davenport describes a horse whose photograph he has been sent by a Mr Rutherford: 

"The photograph shows a Morgan horse probably about five years old with a double main which trails on the ground on either sde for a distance of two feet. The tail trails on the ground for a distance of about sic to eight feet."

After examining pedigree information also provided by Mr Rutherford, for evidence of Mendelian inheritance of the long hair, Davenport concludes that "The data are, as we see, insufficient to decide the matter."

Davenport then mentions that

"The question of Mendelian behavior of animal mutations has long interested me and I have collected some statistics bearing on the subject."

Among traits that he then goes on to describe, the PMIA-relevant trait is polydactyly in cats. By analysing limited family data on polydactylous cats published in Nature by Poulton (1883), Davenport concludes "This case is easily explained on Mendelian principles" by assuming polydactyly to be dominant. In reality, the data are so limited that the evidence is not strong. However, Davenport's conclusion for this trait turns out to have been correct.

For current knowledge on polydactyly in cats, see:

OMIA 000810-9685 : Polydactyly in Felis catus

References

Poulton, E.B. (1883) Observations on Heredity in Cats with an Abnormal Number of Toes. Nature 29: 20-21. View this paper