Meldola’s letter to CD has not been found, but apparently he had written to CD about a case of polydactylism in a woman at Turnham Green, London. CD discussed polydactyly as a possible instance of reversion to a remote ancestral state in Variation 2: 12–17, but expressed reservations about his argument in Descent 1: 125–6, n. 38. Descent had not yet been published. Meldola published on the case in Land and Water, 11 March 1871, p. 179.