Automatic Gram staining by a linear conveyor system.

The examination of a well-stained film of either clinical material or organisms grown in laboratory media constitutes an important part of most investigations in hospital microbiology laboratories. The staining of large numbers of microscope slides, usually by Gram's method, is however timeconsuming, and a number of reports have been made on methods mechanising this procedure. Cremer (1968) and Burdash et al. (1975) have reported such methods based on a procedure whereby microscope slides were collected into batches and processed as such. We report our experience with an automatic linear conveyor system which does not require batching.