156 COMMITTEE’S ADDRESS. 
ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE TO THE MEMBERS 
OF THE TYNESIDE NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB. 
READ AT THE SIXTEENTH ANNIVERSARY MEETING, HELD IN NEW- 
CASTLE-UPON-TYNE, THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1862. 
GENTLEMEN.—The Presidential chair having become vacant, 
through the painfully sudden death of Frederick H. Johnson, 
Esq., M.D., of Sunderland, it has devolved upon your committee 
to prepare the usual account of the meetings of the Club during 
the past year, and to make such observations as seem desirable, 
on other matters bearing upon the interests of the Club. 
Before proceeding further, your committee deem it right to 
put on record their deep sense of the loss sustained by the Club, 
in the much lamented decease of their President, an event which 
has cast a peculiar gloom over the transactions of the year. 
Dr. Johnson left his home on the morning of the 12th Decem- 
ber last, to pursue, as usual, his professional duties. In the 
prime of life, and apparently in excellent health and spirits, no 
symptoms of illness gave him warning of his approaching end. 
In company with an old and valued friend, with whom he con- 
versed by the way, with all his accustomed vivacity, he paid a 
visit to a patient, and while seated at the bedside, an unusual 
pallor was observed to come over his countenance, his head drooped, 
the hand of death was upon him, and in a moment more, the 
kindly heart, and the ever active brain, were silent and stilled for 
ever. ‘In his death,” says a gentleman who knew him well, 
‘Sunderland has lost one of her best and most distinguished 
men; few in any town, have possessed higher qualities of head and 
heart; a powerful intellect, a noble disposition, being linked with 
keen professional acumen, and the kindliest social nature; a warm 
devotion to science, and a love and knowledge both of art and 
literature, gave largeness to his views, and a vivid charm to 
his conversation.” When elected President of this Club, he was 
only known to a few of us, but it was not long before his great 
and varied acquirements, his amiable and attractive disposition, 
