The razor (being only a very fine saw) should be moved in a sloping or sawing direction, holding it nearly flat to your face, care being taken to draw the skin as tight as possible with the left hand, so as to present an even surface and throw out the beard. The practice of pressing on the edge of a razor in stropping generally rounds it; the pressure should be directed to the back, which must never be raised from the strop. If you shave from heel to point of the razor, strop it from point to heel; but if you begin with the point, then strop from heel to point. If you only once put away your razor without stropping or otherwise cleaning the edge, you must no longer expect to shave well, the soap and damp so soon rust the fine teeth or edge. A piece of plate leather should always be kept with the razors.
SHAVING FLUID. See Essence of Soap.
SHAWLS, To Scour. Scrape one pound of soap into thin shavings, and let it be boiled with as much water as will convert into a thin jelly. When cold, beat it with the hand, and mix with it three tablespoonfuls of oil of turpentine, and one of hartshorn. Let the shawl be well washed in this mixture, and afterwards rinsed in cold water, so as to get rid of all the soap.
Next let the shawl be rinsed in salt and water, then wring out the water from it, and fold it between two sheets, being careful not to allow two folds of the shawl to lie together; finally mangle, and iron with a cool iron.
SHEEP. Syn. Ovis, L. The Ovis aries, an animal domesticated almost everywhere. Its flesh supplies us with food, its skin with leather, its fleece with wool, and its intestines with catgut. Its fat (sevum) is officinal. See Mutton, Suet, &c.
Sheep Washes. 1. Arsenious acid in powder, carbonate of potash, of each 6 oz.; water, 14 gall. Boil together for half an hour.
2. Arsenious acid in powder, soft soap, and carbonate of potash, of each 6 oz.; sulphur, 4 oz.; bruised hellebore root, 2 oz.; water, 14 gall. Boil the ingredients in a portion of the water for half an hour, or until the arsenic is dissolved, then add the remainder of the water, and strain through a coarse sieve. Mr Youatt says:—“More care than is usually taken should be exercised in order that the fluid may penetrate to every part of the skin, and which should be ensured by a previous washing in soap and water. The arsenic that necessarily remains about the wool when the water has dried away would probably destroy the acari as fast as they are produced. When a greater quantity of arsenic has been used, or the sheep has been kept too long in the water, fatal consequences have occasionally ensued.”
3. A sheep-dipping composition employed on the Continent is:—Arsenious acid, 1 lb.; sulphate of zinc, 10 lbs.; dissolved in 25 gallons of water.
4. The Australian sheep farmers use a weak solution of bichloride of mercury (1 oz. of the bichloride to 4 gall. of water).
5. Water, 40 parts, at the temperature of 50° to 57° C.; to this add 1 part of soluble glass (the soluble silicates). This is recommended as a very efficient and perfectly safe sheep wash by Messrs Baerle and Co., of Worms. In washing the sheep with this preparation care should be taken to cover the eyes of the animal with a bandage, to perform the washing with the solution instantaneously, and to remove the surplus with tepid water.