S II A 
S H A 
ing, and their proceedings are subject to lire I 
jurisdiction of the king’s bench. In the mak- 
ing of a rate or tax, the commissioners are ‘to 
assess every owner or possessor of lands in 
danger of receiving any damage by the wa- 
ters, equally according to the quality of their 
lands, rents, and numbers of acres, and their 
respective portions and profits, whether it is 
of pasture, fishing, &:c. And where no per- 
sons or lands can be known that are liable to 
make repairs of banks and sewers, then the 
commissioners are to rate the whole level. 
The 3. Jac. I. ordains that all ditches, banks, 
bridges, and water-houses, within two miles 
of ‘ London, adjoining to, and tailing into the 
Thames, shall be subject to the commission- 
ers of sewers. Also the lord-mayor, & c. may 
appoint persons in that case to have the 
power of commissioners of sewers. Persons 
breaking down sea-banks, whereby lands are 
damaged, are adjudged to be guilty of felony ; 
and removing piles, &c. forfeit twenty pounds 
by 6 and 10 Geo. II. c. 32. 
SEXAGESIMALS, or Sexagesimal 
fractions, fractions whose denominators 
proceed in a sexagecuple ratio ; that is, a 
prime, or the first minute, = JU.; a second 
= T7Too-> atlliKi =ltW 
Antientlv there were no other than sexa- 
gesimals used in astronomy, and they are still 
retained in many cases, though decimal arith- 
metic begins to grow in use now in astrono- 
mical calculations. In these fractions, which 
some call astronomical fractions, the deno- 
minator being always sixty, or a multiple 
thereof, is usually omitted, and the numerator 
only written down, thus, 4°, 59', 32", 50'", 
16"", is to be read four degress, fifty-nine 
minutes, thirty-two seconds, fifty thirds, six- 
teen fourths, &c. 
SEXANGLE, in geometry, a figure hav- 
ing six sides, and consequently six angles. 
SEXTANS, a sixth part of certain things. 
The Romans having divided their as into 
twelve ounces, or itnica, the sixth part of 
that, or two ounces, was the sextans. 
Sextans was also a measure which contained 
two ounces of liquor, or two cyathi. See 
Measure. 
SEXTANT, in mathematics, denotes the 
sixth part of a circle, or an arch comprehend- 
ing sixty degrees. 
The word sextant is more particularly used 
for an astronomical instrument made like a 
quadrant, excepting that its limb only com- 
prehends sixty degrees. The use and appli- 
cation of tiie sextant is the same with that of 
the quadrant. See Quadrant. 
SEX TON, a church-officer, whose busi- 
ness is to take care of the vessels, vestments, 
kc. belonging to the church, and to attend 
the minister, churchwardens, Sec. at church. 
He is usually chosen by the parson only. 
SEXTUPLE, sestuplo, in music, denotes 
a mixed sort of triple which is beaten in 
double time, now called compound common 
time. 
SHADOW, in optics, a privation or 
diminution of light, by the interposition of an 
opake body ; or it is a plane where the light 
is either altogether obstructed, or greatly 
weakened, by the interposition of some opake 
body between it and the luminary. See 
Optics. 
Shadow. See Geography. 
SHAFT of a column , in . building, is the 
SHA 
body thereof between the base and capital • 
so called from its straightness. 
SHAGREEN, or Chagreen, in com- j 
merce, a kind of grained leather, prepared, 
as is supposed, of the skin of a species ot 
squalus, or hound-fish, called the shagree, or 
sliagrain, and much used in covering cases, 
books, See. 
It is imported from Constantinople, Tauris, 
Tripoli, Algiers, and from some parts oi Po- 
land, where it is prepared in the following 
manner : the skin being stretched out is first 
covered over with mustard-seed, which is 
bruised upon it ; and being thus exposed to 
the weather for some days, it is then tanned. 
The best is of a brownish colour, as the 
white Sort is the worst. It is extremely hard ; 
yet, when steeped in water, it becomes soft 
and pliable; and being fashioned into case- 
covers, it readily takes any colour, as red, 
green, yellow, black, according to the fancy 
of the workman. 
SHAKLES, in a ship, are the rings with 
which the ports are shut fast, by lashing the 
port- bar to them. There are also shakles put 
upon bilbow-bolts, for confining the men who 
have deserved corporal punishment. 
SHAMBLES, among miners, a sort of 
niches, or landing-places, left at such dis- 
tances in the adits of mines, that the shovel- 
men may conveniently throw up the ore from 
shamble to shamble, till it conies to the top 
of the mine. 
SHAMMY, or Chamois leather, a 
kind of leather dressed either in oil or tanned, 
and much esteemed for its softness, pliancy, 
and being capable of bearing soap without 
hurt. 
The real shammy is prepared of the skin 
of the chamois-goat. 
The true chamois leather is counterfeited 
with common goat, kid, and even sheep-skin; 
the practice of which makes a particular pro- 
fession, called by the French chamoisure. 
The last is the least esteemed, yet so popular, 
and such vast quantities prepared, especially 
about Orleans, Marseilles, and 1 holouse, 
that it may not be amiss to give the method 
of preparation. 
The manner of chamoising, or of preparing 
sheep, goat, or kid-skins in oil, in imitation 
of chamois : 
'The skins being washed, drained, and 
smeared over with quick- Vim- 1 , on the fleshy 
side, are folded ill two, lengthwise, the wool 
outwards, and laid on heaps, and so left to 
ferment eight days ; or it they had been left 
to dry after flaying, for fifteen days. 
Tlien they are washed out, drained, and 
half-dried, laid on a wooden leg or horse, 
the wool stripped off with a round staff for the 
purpose, and laid in a weak pit, the lime 
whereof had been used before, and had lost 
the greatest part of its force. 
After twenty-four hours they are taken 
out, and left to'drain twenty-four more; then 
put into another strong pit. This done, hey 
are taken out, drained, and put in again by 
turns; which begins to dispose them to take 
oil ; and this practice they continue for six 
weeks in summer, or three months in winter; 
at the end whereof they are washed out, laid 
on the wootlen leg, and the surface ot the 
skin on the wool side peeled off, to render 
them the softer; then made into parcels, 
steeped a. night in the river, in winter more; 
Go 3 
- » 
stretched six or seven over one another on 
the wooden leg ; and the knife passed strong- 
ly on the fleshy side, to take oil any tiling 
superfluous, and render the skin smooth. 
Then they are stretched as before in the 
river, and the same operation repeated, £>n 
the wool side; then thrown into a tub of 
water with bran in it, which is brewed among 
the skins till the greatest part sticks to them; 
and then separated into distinct tubs, till they 
swell and rise of themselves above the wa- 
ter. 
By this means, the remains of the lime are 
cleared out ; they are then wrung out, lumg- 
up to dry on ropes, and sent to the mill, w ith 
the' quantity of oil necessary to fill them: 
the best oil is that .of stock-fish. 
Here they are first thrown in bundles 
into tiie river for twelve hours, then laid in 
the mill-trough, and fulled without oil till 
they are well softened; then oiled with the 
hand, one bv one, and thus formed into par- 
cels of four skins each, which arc milled and 
dried on cords a second time, then a third ; 
then oiled again and dried. 
This process is repeated as often as neces- 
sity requires ; when done, if there is any 
moisture remaining, they are dried in a stove, 
and made up in parcels wrapped up in wool ; 
after some time they are opened to the air, 
but wrapped up again as before, till such- 
time as the oil seems to have lost all its force,- 
which it ordinarily does in twenty-four* 
hours. 
The skins are then returned from the mill 
to the chamoiser to be scoured ; which .is 
done by putting them into a lixivium of wood- 
ashes, working and beating them in it with 
poles, and leaving them to steep till the lye 
has had its effect; then wrung out, steeped 
in another lixivium, wrung again, and this re- 
peated till all the grease and oil is purged 
out. 'They are then half-dried, and passed 
over a sharp-edged iron instrument, placed 
perpendicular in a block, which opens, 
softens, and makes them gentle: lastly, they 
are thoroughly dried, and passed -over the 
same instrument again, which finishes the 
preparation, and loaves them in form of 
chamois. 
Kid and goat-skins are chamoised in the 
same manner as those of sheep, excepting- 
that the hair is taken off without the use of 
any lime; and that when brought from the 
mill they undergo a particular preparation' 
called ramalling, the most delicate and diffi- 
cult of ail the others. 
It consists in this, that as soon as brought 
from the mill they are steeped in a fit lixivi- 
um; taken out, stretched oil a round wooden 
leg, and the hair scraped off with the knife ; 
this makes them smooth, and in working cast 
a fine nap. The difficulty is - in scraping 
them evenly. 
SHANKER, or- Chancre. See Me- 
dicine. 
SHARP, in music, a character, the potter- 
of which is -to raise the note before which t is- 
placed halt- a- tone higher than it w ould be 
without sucii a preposition. . 
SHARPING-CORN. a customary gift of 
com, -said to be half a bushel torn plough- - 
land, which -the farmers pay in some parts of 
England to their smith, every Christmas, for 
sharping their plough-irons, harrow-tines, <kc. 
SHAW 1A, a genus of the class and order 
syngenesia polygamia segregate The calyx . 
