DR. CARLOS J. FINLAY 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



BY DR. JUAN GUITERAS 



Carlos Juan Finia y 1) was born in the city of Puerto 

 Principe (now Camagiiey), in the Island of Cuba, on the 3rd 

 of December, 1833. His father was Edward, a Scotch 

 physician, and his mother, Isabel de Barres a native of 

 France. Like to one other great Antillean, Alexander 

 Hamilton, he was born of two great races, the Scotch and the 

 French. 



While he was still in his infancy the family moved to 

 Havana where the boy grew to his eleventh year, residing at 

 times in the Capital, and at times in Guanimar where his 

 father owned one of the coffee plantations which made the 

 country about Alquizar famous for its wealth and beauty. We 

 can well imagine that the life of young Finlay in the open 

 awakened his love for the study of Nature. He received at 

 the same time his school education at the hands of his aunt 

 Anna who had given up a school she kept in Edinbugh to 

 reside with her brother. 



In 1814 Carlos was sent to France and studied in a school 

 at the Havre until 1816 when he had to return to Cuba on 

 account of an attack of chorea. This disease left him with a 

 serious stoppage in his speech which was cured after a careful 

 course of training instituted by his father. We notice to this 

 clay, however, a peculiar slowness and confusion in the 

 enunciation of ideas through articulate speech, a defect that 

 seems to be rather mental and in some way connected with bis 

 very decided absentmindedness. 



He returned to Europe in 1848 to complete his education 



1) Dr. Finlay was christened Juan Carlos, but having signed always Carlos, he 

 took the J. as a middle name when his son Carlos K. began to practice medicine. 



