Mandamus
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Mandamus. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
man-da'mus (from the Latin, meaning we command), a writ issued by a superior court ordering a lower court, or an official, to perform some duty; or else a writ ordering an appearance in court to show reason, if any, why a peremptory mandamus should not be issued. It sometimes happens through neglect, stubbornness, a spirit of evasion, or a worse motive, that delay occurs in the performance of a plain public duty. In case this is made evident to the court, a writ of mandamus may be issued. An injunction is a similar writ or order forbidding an individual to perform some contemplated act. Where ordinary process of law is too slow to prevent the doing of injury, a court may, at its discretion, issue an order to restrain. Both the mandamus and the injunction are issued by the same court. Neither is permissible when ordinary procedure at law is practicable. A court may issue a mandamus compelling a sheriff to return a ledger seized without legal authority; or a register of deeds to record a deed. An injunction may be issued, as in a time of rioting, forbidding any person to delay a train carrying United States mail, to tear out a mill dam, or to lay a railway in a public street. The mandamus is issued to an officer ordering some particular act to be done. The injunction is served on a private person or corporation commanding that some particular act be not done. The former is designed to remedy a past grievance. The latter to prevent future damage. The one commands an official to do what he ought to have done before; the other orders a person not to do something he ought not to do. In case of disobeying either, the offender may be arrested and brought before the judge for contempt of court. There is a strong popular prejudice against both the mandamus and the injunction. As the hearing is held before the judge without the impaneling of a jury, it is felt that either of the writs mentioned is merely a legal device to take the matter out of the hands of the people. Wealthy corporations resort, not infrequently, to an injunction, because they feel that that they cannot secure justice at the hands of a popular jury. When, as sometimes happens, a judge owes his appointment to a corporate influence, the case is still worse. The popular prejudice against summary methods of court procedure has found voice in the campaign cry of "No government by injunction."
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a writ issued by a superior court and directed to some inferior tribunal, or to some corporation or person exercising public authority, commanding the performance of some specified duty. MANDAN INDIANS (United States) a once famous tribe of Siouan origin now settled in the Fort Berthold Reser ed to Japanese subjects in South Man-vation, North Dakota. A prosperous energetic people when first discovered in the 18th century, they are now reduced to about 200. Though frequently migrating, they were not a nomadic people but lived in stockaded villages of round, log houses. They were agrarian and had regular seasons for hunting. They tattoed face and breast and were noted for elaborate ceremonies and rites, which included self-torture.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The core definition in Collier's 1921 "a writ issued by a superior court... commanding the performance of some specified duty" is still an accurate description of mandamus, which American courts use daily to force officials to act, from recording a deed to deciding a stalled visa application. What has dated is Aiton's 1910 political aside about "the campaign cry of 'No government by injunction'": that campaign largely won, with the Clayton Act of 1914 and above all the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 sharply restricting federal injunctions in labor disputes. The machinery has also been renamed in places: the US federal courts formally abolished the writ itself in 1938, relief now being sought by ordinary motion, and in England and Wales the old prerogative writ became the "mandatory order" in 2004. Aiton's neat contrast between a mandamus (do your duty) and an injunction (stop) remains the way the pair is taught.
Written for this edition, 2026.