Dr. Finlay was a member of Havana's Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences. He was fluent in French, German, Spanish, and English, and could read Latin. He was interested in a lot of things but his main interest was yellow fever. He wrote 40 articles on this disease. His theory was that an intermediary host was responsible for the spread of the disease. As a result of his work, Dr. Finlay was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but it was never awarded to him. He received the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France in 1908.