1.  Make an air dried, heat fixed smear of your bacteria sample.

2.  Stain with a basic dye (methylene blue) for 3 minutes.

3.  Rinse, blot dry, and observe

1.       Take two slides

2.       Place a drop of acidic dye, nigrosin, at one end of your slide. 

3.       Place your specimen into the dye and swirl it in the stain. 

4.       Using the other slide, hold it at a 45º angle and feather the mixture across the slide by pushing the dye.

5.       Air dry but do NOT heat fix.  This will keep the morphology of the bacteria intact.

6.       Observe your negative slide

 Prepare an air-dried heat-fixed smear of your bacterial specimen.

1.   Stain with primary stain (crystal violet) for 1 min 

2.   Apply mordent (Iodine) for 1 min

3.   Rinse with decolorizer like ethyl alcohol (15 - 30 sec)

4.   Stain with counter stain (safranin) for 30 sec

5.   Rinse between each of the above steps

6.   Blot dry and observe 

For the following slides, identify the procedure that was performed.