]]> Place a small piece of tape at one end of the slide Label the tape with the name of the bacterium Pick up the dropper bottle of deionized water Place 1/2 of a normal sized drop of water on a clean slide Place the entire wire portion of the inoculating loop into the opening of the microincinerator Wait 10 seconds Remove the inoculation loop from the microincinerator Allow the loop to cool 10-20 seconds Pick up the Trypticase Soy agar plate Staphylococcus epidermidis Insert the inoculating loop and remove a small amount of culture Gently touch it several times to the drop of water Make sure the water becomes visibly cloudy Use the loop to spread the suspension over the slide to form a thin film Allow the thin suspension to completely air dry Add several drops of 95% methanol to the air-dried smear of bacteria Wait 2 minutes Pick up the slide and allow the excess methanol to drain off Let the slide again air dry before staining Place the slide on a staining tray Cover the entire film with crystal violet Wait 1 minute Pick up the slide by one end and hold it at an angle over the staining tray Using the wash bottle, gently wash off the excess stain from the slide Shake off excess water Cover the entire film with Gram's iodine solution Pick up the slide and let the Gram's decolorizer run down the slide Wait until the purple just stops flowing at the bottom of the slide Make sure the entire smear is evenly decolorized Wash immediately with water Cover the entire film with safranin Wash off the excess safranin gently and briefly Use a book of blotting paper to blot the slide dry