IGNORAMUS, properly an English law term for the endorse ment on the bill of indictment made by a grand jury when they "throw out" the bill, i.e., when they do not consider that the case should go to a petty jury. The expression is now obsolete, "not a true bill," "no bill," being used. The expressions "ignoramus jury," "ignoramus Whig," etc., were common in the political satires and pamphlets of the years following on the throwing out of the bill for high treason against the and earl of Shaftesbury in 1681. The application of the term to an ignorant person dates from the early part of the 17 th century. This term, in a legal sense, is not in use in the United States.