The first step in most bacterial staining procedures is the preparation of a smear. In a smear preparation, cells from a culture are spread in a thin film over a small area of a microscope slide, ...

In smear microscopy — a technique developed in the 1870s — sputum samples are smeared on a microscope slide and stained with a dye that binds to the bacteria that cause the disease.

During many kinds of bacterial infections there is an increase in the total number of white blood ... The different types of WBC and their percentages can be determined by doing a differential count ...