A new technique for estimating the absolute level of parasitemias in trypanosome infections is described. At higher levels of infection this is achieved by matching microscopic fields of a wet blood film against charts and, where fewer organisms are present, by counting the number of trypanosomes in 5, 10, or 20 such microscope fields. Good estimates of the number of organisms per milliliter of blood can be made rapidly over the whole range of microscopically patent parasitemia, i.e., above antilog 5.4 (250,000) organisms/ml.