Silva (Matias Figueira da)

He was born in Funchal in 1843, the son of José Figueira da Silva, and attended the lyceum of this city, later moving to Coimbra, where he enrolled in the faculties of mathematics and philosophy at the University. After falling ill months later, he returned to Funchal, only returning to Coimbra the following year, not to continue his studies, but to enroll in the Faculty of Law, a course he also did not complete due to the worsening of his lung ailments in that city. As the native air did not restore his health, he made a trip to the United States, where he had an uncle with some means of fortune, and he did so well in that country that he decided to stay there, enrolling after some time in a medical school, from which he graduated with the highest distinction. He practiced his profession for many years in the city of Brooklyn, where he was highly regarded for his knowledge and skill as a physician, and he still resides there, although he has abandoned clinical practice for several years. He published several articles in American medical journals, especially in New York, and while he lived in Madeira, he collaborated in some local newspapers, and was also one of the authors of Guyaneida (see this name), a heroic-comic poem that was never printed, but of which copies exist in the possession of various people in Funchal.