AFTER two operations for empyema, or suppurative pleurisy, Enrico Caruso continues seriously ill in his apartment at the Vanderbilt Hotel. Six physicians are in attendance upon him, the original five having been increased by the addition of Dr. John F. Erdmann, who performed the operations. Bulletins have been issued daily with respect to his condition. These, while emphasizing that there is no cause for alarm, have not attempted to disguise the fact that Mr. Caruso is a very sick man.

Although no statement bearing on the subject has been obtainable from the Metropolitan Opera Company or from the physicians in charge of the fight to bring the king of tenors back to his normal health, the best opinion seems to be that Mr. Caruso will sing no more this season. Medical men not connected in any way with the case have stated that, at the best, his recovery must necessarily be slow. One physician was quoted in the press as saying that six “weeks would be required to complete the draining process, to establish which the two operations were performed. True convalescence, it was stated, would not start until the draining was completed and the wound healed.

The Metropolitan season of twenty-three weeks will continue until the middle of April. That the tenor would be strong enough to sing by that time—some fifteen weeks away—was doubted by those who said they were only applying to his illness the experience of similar cases. While no prediction has been ventured at the Metropolitan as to when Caruso may be expected to return, a more optimistic view seems to prevail there, and many subscribers have seen in informal expressions of attaches of the house reason to hope that the tenor will have a few appearances at least in the concluding weeks of the season.

These hopes were strengthened when, on Tuesday, after further reassuring word came from the tenor’s physicians as to improvement in his condition, it was stated that no further bulletins would be given out. The possibility that Caruso might again be heard in March was discussed.

The nature of. Mr. Caruso’s illness, however, has been sufficiently grave to turn talk from his absence from opera to his condition as reported from day to day. Put to bed Christmas afternoon, after having sung the night before in “La Juive,” he was described as resting comfortably and bulletins were regarded as reassuring until it was announced on Dec. 30 that he had been operated on for empyema, a suppurative condition following pleurisy and complicating the malady. That this operation had not been fully successful in coping with the condition was found the next day, when a second and more drastic operation was performed. This resulted in the circulation of many rumors, among them that a portion of one rib had been removed. In support of a denial of this latter statement it was pointed out at the Metropolitan that the operation had lasted but eleven minutes.

On the last day of the year the tenor, through his secretary, Bruno Zirato, sent to the waiting newspapermen his best wishes for a Happy New Year for them. Mr. Zirato said that Mr. Caruso was appreciative of the solicitude of the reporters and regretted that he was not able to write them cards of greeting.

New Year’s day found the tenor restless and his fever higher. This was attributed to the noise of the New Year’s Eve celebration, which disturbed his rest. His bedroom, directly over Fourth Avenue, caught the din of the celebrants, it was said, to an extent that caused him to ask his secretary several times to attempt to shut out the noise.

Reassuring bulletins were issued Sunday and Monday stating that he was doing as well as could be expected and was being made as comfortable as possible. Mrs. Caruso has been constantly at his bedside, and two shifts of two nurses each have aided the six physicians in ministering to the tenor’s comfort.