Collection, Identification, and Cultivation of Oral Protozoa

Abstract

It is not unusual for scientific investigators, especially young ones, channeling their careers into types of research requiring rather specialized techniques, to experience considerable difficulty in mastering the steps involved in certain technical procedures that, according to published account, have yielded excellent results in the hands of the more experienced worker. Often it seems that there surely must be more factors in-volved than appear in the directions. This is usually the case, since no two technicians employ identical dexterity, tempo, and sequence of steps in a given technique, any more than two housewives would, in following a recipe, add ingredients, mix, and bake in exactly the same way. The researcher, facing from time to time new laboratory techniques, should be cognizant that there are often substeps, extra manipulations, and precise ways of executing certain procedures that, once discovered and perfected through experience, make the difference between success and failure in following a given outlined technique. Success in technique is enhanced if the following rules are closely and invariably followed: (1) Prior to the actual execution of the technique, carefully read and re-