In his will he left money to found a university 'for the good of mankind and the improvement of science' and, far ahead of his time, open to 'the ladies of Glasgow'. The University to-day has much more in common with the university of the 18th century than with the earlier College but the similarity in terminology can be misleading. There has been vast change since 1700 and none so rapid as in the last half century. The time-scale of change in teaching and research is clearest in the sciences. They had been transformed in the 17th century.
Astronomy is a good example of the change in Glasgow.
It had been taught since 1451 when the principal teaching text was the Sphere compiled by John of Holywood, a 13th century English cleric, on the basis of texts written by Greek and Arab writers over more than a thousand years. In the 16th century observational and mathematical work throughout Europe began a revolution in astronomy and in Glasgow, though the Sphere continued to be used for a time, teaching slowly changed. Some time before 1689 the University had acquired a telescope five feet long and in 1693 it paid or sought 32 for 'ane telescope eight feet long, ane prisma and twelve tubes for weather glasses' - barometers. It had been debating for some time how to fund an observatory when in 1754 Alexander Macfarlane, merchant in Jamaica, bequeathed it the instruments in his observatory. They were damaged on the voyage but a young technician, James Watt, the later inventor, recently returned from training as an instrument-maker in London, was able to rescue them.