born Dec. 3, 1833, Puerto Príncipe, Cuba
died Aug. 20, 1915, Havana
Cuban epidemiologist.
He is known for his discovery that yellow fever is transmitted by a mosquito. Though he published experimental evidence in 1886, his ideas were ignored for nearly 20 years. He urged the study of means of transmission and stated that the carrier was the mosquito Culex fasciatus (now called Aedes aegypti ). In 1900 Walter Reed confirmed Finlay's theory, leading to the eradication of yellow fever in Cuba and Panama by William Gorgas . After his death, the Cuban government created the Finlay Institute for Investigations in Tropical Medicine.