The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-29
THE PoPE's RECOVERY.
Remarks Upon His Illness and Con-
stitutioD by High Medical
Aufhorffv

Authority.
From the London Lancet.
plain living and high thinking" have
scored" again, and the monogenariah
pontiff, after an illness followed by an OPP
Grafton which within twenty-four hours
brought 10000 kilograms of inquiry to the
vatican, has been allowed to leave his bed
and, seated in his armchair by the now
historic window, to look out on that world
from which he has been excluded for more
than twenty-one years. His case in all its
incidents and surroundings is a memora-
BILE one Other pontiffs, indeed, have shown
marvellous vitality, though out of the to-
tai of 1853 sixteen only have seen their 8lst
year. His immediate predecessor Piux TX,
lived until he was 80 years of age, and
alone of all the P0pes surpassed the years
OF Peter (tWenty-one) on the papai
throne. Clement XI died in his 93d year
Paul ", elected at 50 years of age, lived
four years afterward, and Gregory TX died
all but eenteuarian. But none of these
Popes, except Pho Mono for few years.
was a prisoner" confined to a palace
and garden" as Leo XIII has been
since February, 1878. They could all leave
the vatican for the quirinal, and both these
palaces during the dog-days for Castei
the Alban lake, well nigh 200O feet above
sea level. Change of air and change of
scene were open TO them. But Leo XIII
has never stirred beyond that Mons Vati-
canus which retains the insaIubrious char
acter given it by Martial. None of them,
moreover, in their 90th year had 20 under
go the enucleation of an infiamed cystoid
tumor of quarter of a century's stand
ing, and all this amid the cares of a
spiritual empire infinitely greater in num-
Der and complexity than the busiest of
them ever knew.
OF course, in the present case the per
sonal equation" counts for much. Leo
XIII comes of the ancient stock of the
Peccis, mountaineers of the Latian and
Neapolitan frontier. From his youth up an
indefatigable scholar, he relieved the Sc
clusion of the study with open-air exercise
and during the many years he was Arch
bishop of Perugio INDUCED in field sports
mainly with his gun. Then, again. he was
happily gifted with the mems aequa" of
his favorite poet, conducting to that even
flow of the circulation which is marked by
the pulse of longevity" Over and above
this constitutional characteristic, he has
always had the will to live" which in
the physical sphere is the counterpart of
what the greatest of American psycholo-
glsts has in the religious life called the
will to believe" This effort of yolition
conscious or unconscious, is quite compati-
bic, as In Leo's case, with absolute cour-
age in face of death
Indeed, before and after the operation
the pontiff's cheerfulness almost rose to
gayety expressing itself In pleasant SAL
lies doubly pleasant for his consultants
to hear 1t may or may not be truly
stated he congratulated himself, as a hope
full element in the prognosis, on his "hav-
ing youth on his side But he certainly
spoke and acted as IL he had-as If. in
deed, he fully shared Prof Mazzonis be-
lief that after the operation he had at
least as many years in store as would
suffice to fastify the words whispered into
his ear on coronation: Non videbis an
nos Petri." His example adds another to
the many instances of patriachal years
attained by Woodworking men. profess
slonal and other, in whom mind and soul
according well, with physique unbroken
by excess and braced by manly exercise
have resulted in that "old age" imnor
tal1zed by Wordsworth as beautiful and
free" That poet himself and his official
successor, Lord Tennyson, the Duke of
wellington, and the Emperor William 7
are typical examples of that serene ''sun-
set of life" which, succeeding its "htful
fever" shed so rich an afterglow on their
decline"