EVOLUTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR 
steadily reduced in size during a couple 
of centuries. About 1500 it became 
uniformly concave and lost its chopping 
function. It was then simply a double 
beak which was used as a pick, or at 
need served as a grappling hook when 
lances were to be pulled down or when a 
wall was to be clambered up. 
Again, among our arms, highly special- 
ized forms were common, just as we find 
309 
everywhere animals which were curiously 
developed in certain directions, as when 
their teeth were suited only for a special 
kind of food. Such forms, we find too, 
did not long survive, dying out just as 
our specialized animals do, e. g. when 
their particular kind of food gives out. 
As an instance of this we may note the 
billhooks which were common in Eng- 
land in the fifteenth century. In their 
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POLE ARMS 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR COMMONER FORMS 
DURING THE CENTURIES 
BASHFORD DEAN DIR 
