14 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE 



Sir ^^'illiaIn ('oi-Jielins Van Home died at 

 Meat real, Canada, on Saturday, September 

 mil. Sir William was one of the great 

 raih'oad hiiildei's of the world, ami the fame 

 which caine to hhn for his work in the con- 

 struction of the great Canadian Pacific 

 Railway is too well-known for comment. 

 The Ciiba Railroad Company owes its 

 construction and successful operation to 

 the energy and ability of Sir William, 

 Van Home. By the constructiaa of this 

 railroad, Havana was linked to Santiago de 

 Cuba, and the great undeveloped Eastern 

 end of Cuba imm.ediately felt the stimulus 

 that only a railroad can bring. The inmiense 

 amount of capital which has been invested 

 in enterprises in the Provinces of Oriente 

 and Camaguey was primarily due to the 

 foresight of Sir William Van Home. In his 

 death one of the great figures in the world of 

 commerce has passed. 



DR. CARLOS J. FINLAY 



On ..\xigust 20th Dr. Carlos J. Finlay, the 

 discoverer of the theory that yellow fever is 

 tran.smitted through the bite of a m.osquito, 

 died in Havana, Cuba, at the age of 82. Dr. 

 Finlay was born in Puerto Principe, Cul)a, in 

 1833. He was educated in France and in the 

 United States, receiving his medical degree 

 from the Jefferson Medical School at Phila- 

 del]jhia. On the completion of his education, 

 he returned to Cuba and became one cf the 

 leading physicians of the island. For many 

 years after Dr. Finlay announced his theory 

 in regard to yellow fever, his contention that 

 it was a preventable disease was not accepted. 

 It was not until the ^A.inerican occupation of 

 Cu])a that Dr. Finlay's theary received 

 proper consideration, l)ut through a series of 

 experiments it was deinonstrated that the 

 theory of Dr. Finlay's was correct, and that 

 the great scovirge of yellow fever could be suc- 

 cessfullv resisted. 



One of medicine's char- 

 He Fought acteristic scandals is recalled 

 Long for by the death in Havana of 

 Recognition. Dr. Charles, or Carles J. Fin- 

 lay. As long ago as 1886 he 

 had become convinced that a certain mos- 

 quito was the one agent by which yellow 

 fever was conveyed from one human being 



to another. This conclusion was based on 

 careful and intelligent observation of many 

 epidemics of the disease, and in the year 

 mentioned in a public address before his 

 colleagues, and later in well-argued articles 

 in re])utal)le American medical journals, he 

 jjresented facts that should have started 

 just the sort of investigation which, after 

 our war with S]:)ain, not only proved that 

 Dr. Finlay was right, but made practicable 

 and easy abolition throughout the Western 

 Hemisphere of one of its worst diseases. 



But for years and years, Dr. Finlay and 

 his mosciuito theory received no attention, 

 not derisive or contemptuous, and this was 

 the stranger because, in the meantime, the 

 relation of the same insects to a closely re- 

 lated malady, malaria, had been brilliantly 

 demonstrated abroad. It was not until 

 our army surgeons went to Havana that the 

 mosquito theory received serious attention, 

 and even they gave it at first reluctantly 

 and without confidence of success. When 

 their interest had once been excited, however, 

 their work was magnificent. The surgeons 

 risked, and some of them lost, their lives in 

 testing the Finlay ideas. They found 

 most of them — all of any importance — to 

 be correct, and soon there was no more 

 mystery about yellow fever and what to do 

 for it than there is in a case of broken arm 

 or leg. 



Dr. Finlay's name remains almost unknown 

 outside of medical circles, and in them it is 

 not as well known as are the names of the 

 men whom he set on the path that led to fame. 

 — Times, New York. 



CUBA AND THE MAINE 



Cuba is to honor the Maine. Secretary 

 of Agriculture Nunez of Cuba, secretary of 

 the Maine cominission, declares that a monu- 

 ment to cost $33,000 will be erected as Maine 

 memorial, the shaft to be completed by 

 Sept. 1, 1916. President Menocal has re- 

 quested a credit of $33,000 for the monu- 

 ment. 



MEMORIAL TO SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE 



Arrangements have already been made to 

 raise a fund to be used for the erection of a 

 statue to the memory of Sir William Van 

 Home, the memorial to be erected at either 

 Havana or Camaguey. 



