A culture package having a pair of separable panels defining two compartments, one holding a sterile absorbent swab and the other supporting a rupturable container for a liquid organism-sustaining medium. At least one of the panels is transparent and flexible, permitting the swab to be viewed in its compartment and allowing the container to be ruptured by finger pressure so that the liquid therein may drain into the adjoining swab compartment. A sheath of distinctive color is removably fitted on the swab handle. By gripping only the sheath, a user may withdraw the swab and later return and reseal it within its compartment without contaminating the swab handle. In one form of the invention, the package includes a third slide-containing compartment oriented with respect to the swab compartment, and to the package as a whole, so that a surface of the slide is exposed when the package is opened for swab removal. The disclosure includes a description of structure for facilitating the extraction of the swab and slide from their compartments, for supporting the slide to protect it from breakage during mailing and handling of the package, and for insuring that liquid released from the rupturable container will enter and remain in the swab compartment.
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