The other Dr Finlay is commemorated in Cuban stamps

Editor—Mortimer's interesting filler describes the lack of recognition of Carlos Juan Finlay for his work on yellow fever¹; but Finlay and his work on yellow fever have been remembered and commemorated frequently by the Cuban postal authorities. His portrait appears on stamp issues of 1934 (two values), 1951 (one value), 1954 (two values) 1965 (one of seven values), 1981 (one value), and 1993 (one value).

In 1981 the centenary of his proposal that the Aedes aegypti mosquito was the vector in the transmission of yellow fever was commemorated by the issue of a stamp depicting the mosquito, a statement of his thesis, and his portrait.

On 20 August 1965, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Finlay's death, a set of seven stamps was issued, which depict Finlay's portrait, his microscope, his statue, his autograph, and his Cuban coworker, Dr Claudio Delgado. The figure shows the last in the set, which is a mirror image of Esteban Valderrama's now lost mural The Triumph of Finlay, depicting the Yellow Fever Commission in Havana, Cuba, in 1900. As part of the work of the commission, Carroll and Lazear, two of the doctors from the US army depicted in the stamp, along with Clara Maas, a US army nurse, allowed themselves to be bitten by infected mosquitos. They all developed yellow fever; Lazear and Maas died in 1900, and Carroll sustained damage to his heart, from which he died in 1907. Maas has been commemorated in Cuban and US stamps also. Would that the British postal authorities were as assiduous in commemorating the plethora of outstanding British medical workers.

Figure.

Cuban stamp commemorating 50th anniversary of Finlay's death. From left to right: Dr Carlos J Finlay; Dr Antonio Dias Albertini; Dr Walter Reed, US army; Dr James Carroll, US army; Dr Jesse W Lazear, US army; unknown