ANDERSON'S COLLEGE was originally intended to be a university of four colleges. The funds being inadequate to the proposed plan, the institution was opened with only a single course of lectures on Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, by Dr Thomas Garnett in 1796. In 1798 a professor of Mathematics and Geography was appointed. In 1799
Dr Birkbeck, the successor of Dr Garnett, commenced the system of giving a familiar exposition of mechanics and general science, and this was the origin of mechanics' institutes.
In 1861-1870 the endowments were augmented by Freeland, Ewing, and Young. The institution gradually enlarged its sphere of instruction, till it came to have a staff of nearly twenty professors and lecturers. Courses of instruction were given in Mathematics, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Music, &c. But as other educational institutes have multiplied, Anderson's College has limited itself almost exclusively to medicine; physics, chemistry, and botany being, however, included in the curriculum. The lectures qualify for degrees in Glasgow and several other universities.