Xylotomy

'''Xylotomy''' is the preparation of small slivers of wood for examination under a microscope, often using a microtome.

It is useful for providing forensic evidence in some criminal cases where finding a fragment of wood on an individual and matching it to a weapon used in a crime would be helpful.<ref>[http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/xylotomy] World of Forensic Science article</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.library.uiuc.edu/idnc/Default/Skins/UIUC/Client.asp?Skin%3DUIUC%26AppName%3D2%26enter%3Dtrue%26BaseHref%3DTUC%2F1935%2F05%2F28%26EntityId%3DAr00812 |title=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |access-date=August 18, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208160358/http://www.library.uiuc.edu/idnc/Default/Skins/UIUC/Client.asp?Skin=UIUC |archive-date=February 8, 2009 }} Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection</ref> During the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, accused in the Lindbergh kidnapping during the 1930s, the xylotomist Arthur Koehler was able to provide crucial evidence by linking a piece of pine from a ladder used in a kidnapping to one particular factory whose machinery was defective, and from there to one particular lumberyard.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091004223011/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,872780,00.html] Nightmare remembered</ref> Koehler searched for eighteen months for the yard, and presented his evidence dramatically in court by presenting the court with a chalk rubbing of the samples, which he made there and then, demonstrating that they were identical.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111222065223/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788508,00.html] New Jersey v. Hauptmann (Cont'd)</ref> He also matched other pieces of the ladder to a chisel used to create the joists, missing from the defendant's tool chest, and to a missing plank from the suspect's attic floor.

It may also be useful in forestry studies. Identifying the species of a piece of wood is not always easy, in which case a xylotheque may provide samples with which the xylotomist can compare his own. Xylotomy may be carried out by a forensic biologist. People who specialize in xylotomy are rare. The public have been known to confuse it with someone who plays the xylophone<ref>[http://www.newspaperarchive.com/LandingPage.aspx?type=nlp&search=xylotomist&img=\\na0020\6791334\44624240.html] THE XYLOTOMIST, Post-Standard, The Thursday, September 22, 1910</ref> and they do not tend to take much interest in the subject.<ref>[http://www.newspaperarchive.com/LandingPage.aspx?type=nlp&search=xylotomy&img=\\na0010\486329\5419681.html] Washington Post, The Wednesday, August 24, 1910</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==See also== * Wood * Forensics

Category:Wood Category:Forensic techniques Category:Forestry