WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY VS. GREEN. 101

this injunction has gone. The bill alleges, that the buildings
erected upon the grounds in question had been used for the
purpose of giving medical instruction, and as an infirmary for
the sick, and were so used through the professors composing
the medical faculty of the corporation, who must necessarily
have possession, and free and uninterrupted ingress and egress
therefrom; and it prays that the defendant shall be restrained
from so acting, as to interfere with their possession, and use
for that purpose; and that he be commanded to forbear from
the repetition of acts which impeded the enjoyment of these
rights, and the discharge of these duties on the part of the
professors. It seems to me that an injunction of this descrip-
tion cannot be regarded as going beyond the legitimate office
of the process, or as possessing the character of a judicial writ,
which can only issue after a decree; but that, in the language
of Judge Story, it is "preventive and protective merely, and
not restorative." But conceding that the injunction in this
case does approach very nearly to commanding a thing to be
undone, authorities are not wanting to justify it even if viewed
in that aspect, as appears by the cases in which parties have
been commanded by injunction not thereafter to continue to
cause a stream to flow irregularly, by which the plaintiff's mill
had been supplied, and the current of which had been impeded
by breaches made or obstructions interposed by the defendant.
In cases of this description, as it is obvious the injunction
could only be obeyed by repairing the breaches, or removing
the obstructions, the office of the writ would appear to have
been carried further than could be sanctioned, viewing it merely
as prohibitory and conservative. The cases in which the writ
of injunction has been thus applied, are collected in Mur-
doch's case, 2 Bland, 471; see also Eden on Injunctions,
331.

But the injunction in this case is not put upon this gronnd,
as I concur in the principle, that the process, unless issued
after the decree, when it becomes judicial, can only be used
for the purpose of prevention, and protection, and not for the

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