STILL fighting fever, but apparently gaining strength and partaking better of the food brought to him, Enrico Caruso entered another year of his life last Sunday, the day being the forty-eighth anniversary of his birth. There was no celebration and he saw no visitors in the suite at the Vanderbilt Hotel, where he has been ill of suppurative pleurisy since Christmas day.

Flowers were sent to his rooms in great numbers, and telegrams and letters of congratulation came from many parts of the world. Every care was taken, however, to avoid exciting the patient.

Due to an error in various biographical sketches of the tenor, many of the congratulatory messages for his birthday were sent to arrive Friday, Feb. 25. Even some of those closest to the tenor were mistaken with regard to the date until Bruno Zirato, secretary to Caruso, mentioned the matter to him and Caruso told him his birthday was on the 27th and not the 25th. Among the communications received was one from the tenor’s brother, Giovanni Caruso, en route from Italy on the Caronia. Since learning of his brother’s coming, Caruso has expressed the wish that he might be strong enough to return to Italy with his brother. Tentative plans still contemplate that the patient will be taken to Atlantic City for a few weeks as soon as he is strong enough, and then go either to Italy or the southern part of the United States.

Bulletins of the last week have sounded a hopeful note, without ignoring the fact that Caruso is still a very sick man. The pleura has been reported healing, but inflammation is still present. The fever has been high at times, but on Monday was reported somewhat lower.

Wednesday of last week the following bulletin was issued:

“Mr. Caruso has had no change in his favorable recovery. His condition is satisfactory.”

Thursday’s communication was as follows:

On Friday the physicians reported:

“Mr. Caruso is progressing favorably. In the course of his disease his improvement is slow but steady.”

Saturday’s bulletin was as follows:

“Mr. Caruso is progressing favorably. He is slowly but surely improving.”

On Sunday the physicians reported the following:

“Improvement shown as usual. Fever lower, but has not yet subsided. The course of the disease is progressing favorably.”

Several times during the week it was pointed out that the tenor’s appetite was good and that he was resting well. Thursday night he slept ten hours. His usual breakfast has consisted of two boiled eggs, coffee and toast. He has partaken of the breast of chicken and chicken gruel, with occasionally milk and whiskey between meals. Some of the communications received on his birthday anniversary were read to him, but an attempt on his part to read was abandoned. Mrs. Caruso has been almost continually at his bedside.

During the week a reassuring statement regarding Caruso’s voice was made by Dr. Francis J. Murray.

“Mr. Caruso’s larynx is as good as it ever was,” the physician said. “It has been unaffected by his illness. Although our main concern is to see that our patient gets on his feet, the fact that his larynx has not been injured would lead us to believe, from a medical viewpoint, that Mr. Caruso will be able to sing as well as ever, provided, of course, that his condition continues to improve and reaches the stage of convalescence that we hope it will.”

The following statement was issued at the Metropolitan:

“Rumor has been made within a few days that Caruso probably would never sing again.

“There is nothing whatever in Mr. Caruso’s condition to warrant any such supposition. The indications are that, once he recovers, he will sing better than ever. This illness, unfortunate as it has been, has given his voice and throat the first real rest they have had in twenty-five years, and this must be of great advantage to the most strenuously exercised vocal organs in the world.

“There remains, then, merely the question of complete recovery of constitutional strength, with probable freedom from the minor lapses in health that troubled him for some time before his final breakdown in December. It is only proper to state now that at no time has there been any injury to or difficulty with his voice. Certain diagnoses preceding his present illness now are known to have been incorrect.”