YEARS

ANDERSONIAN INSTITUTION.

This Institution, established in pursuance of the will of the late Mr. John Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, dated 7th of May 1795, and endowed by him with a valuable. Philosophical Apparatus, Mu

Conformable to the latter will of Professor Anderson, the following inscription has been made on two free stones, previously soaked in lintseed oil, and placed near the east end of the south front of the North-West Church.

"Near this place lie the remains of the Rev. John Anderson, who was Preceptor to the famous John, Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, and Minister of the Gospel, in Dumbarton, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and in this Church in the year 1720; he was the Author of the Defence of the Church Government, Faith, Worship, and Spirit of the Presbyterians, and of several other ecclesiastical and political tracts. As a pious Minister and an eloquent Preacher, a defender of civil and religious liberty, and a man of wit and learning, he was much esteemed; he lived in the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., Anne, and George I. Such times and such a man forget not, reader, while thy country, liberty, and religion, are dear to thee.

seum, and Library, was incorporated by a Charter from the Magistrates of this City, on the 9th of June 1796. The Institution is continued under the inspection and control of the Lord Provost, and other honourable official persons, as ordinary visitors, and placed under the immediate superintendence of eighty-one Trustees, who are elected by ballot, and remain in office for life. These Trustees consist of nine classes of citizens, viz. the first class are Tradesmen; the second, Agriculturists; the third, Artists; the fourth, Manufacturers; the fifth, Physicians and Surgeons; the sixth, Lawyers; the seventh, Divines; the eighth, Philosophers; the ninth, Kinsmen or Namesakes of the Donor. The Trustees elect annually by ballot, nine of their number to be Managers, to whom the principal affairs of the Institution are entrusted. These Managers, at their first meeting, elect by ballot, from their number, the President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The Professors are elected by the eighty-one Trustees.

The views of the venerable and justly celebrated Founder, embraced a complete circle of liberal education, adapted to the present improved state of society; circumstances, however, have hitherto limited the plan to Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Materia Medica, Pharmacy, Mathematics, and Geography. Popular and scientific lectures, from its commencement, were delivered to both sexes by Dr. Garnet, with great approbation, till in 1799, he received an appointment to be Professor of Experimental Philosophy, Mechanics, and Che

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Mingled with the dust of the above-mentioned Mr. John Anderson, is that of his grandson, Mr. John Anderson, who died on the 15th January, in the year 1796, in the seventieth year of his age, and forty-first of his professorship. The eldest son of Mr. Anderson, who was Minister in this Church, was the Rev. James Anderson, who was Minister in Roseneath; and his eldest son was the above-mentioned Mr. John Anderson, who was Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, and the Founder of an Institution in the City of Glasgow, for lectures in Natural Philosophy, and in every branch of knowledge. "Erected July 1796."/

mistry, in the Royal Institution of London, which had been formed on the model of this primary Institution.

Dr. Garnet was succeeded by Dr. Birkbeck, who, in addition to the branches taught by his predecessor, introduced a familiar system of Philosophical and Mechanical information to 500 operative mechanics, free of all expense, exclusive of the exhibition of an extensive apparatus. The Institution has procured particular models for illustration, which has been productive of the best effects on this useful class of the community.

The Managers of the Institution, have recently become proprietors of the extensive and commodious buildings, which they formerly rented in John-Street. To the original valuable stock of apparatus, very considerable additions have lately been made; to the library, a valuable addition of the most approved Treatises on the science of Mechanics and Chemistry, &c. have been added for the use of the Students, by the unremitting exertions of Dr. Ure.

* The Institution is highly indebted to the Secretaries for their valuable. gratuitous, and disinterested services.

Professors.

1. Dr. Thomas Garnet; he was appointed on 21st September 1796, to be Professør of Natural and Experimental

Philosophy and Chemistry.

2. Mr. Robert Lothian; he was appointed on 31st October 1798, to be Professor of Mathematics and Geography. 3. Dr. George Birkbeck; he was appointed on 18th October

1799, to be Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry, on the resignation of Dr. Garnet.

Dr. Birkbeck resigned his office on the 5th of August 1804.

4. Dr. Andrew Ure; he was appointed on the 21st Septem

ber 1804, to be Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry.*

5. Mr. John Cross; he was appointed on the 3d of January 1811, to be Professor of Mathematics and Geography, that office being vacant on the resignation of Mr. Lothian. Mr. Cross resigned his office, on being appointed Observer and Superintendent of the Glasgow Observatory, on 26th May 1814.

6. Dr. William Cummin; he was appointed on 22d March 1816, to be Professor of Botany.

*

7.

By the will of the Founder, Mr. William Meikleham was appointed to the office of Professor of Physics, or Natural History, in the Andersonian Institution, which he declined to accept on the 7th of May 1796.