"quantitative"?

[paul haney]

This isn't strictly a molbio question, but it's something that's been
bothering me lately.  One of my coworkers was precipitating something
(maybe an ethanol precipitation of DNA, I forget...) and he said that his
protocol resulted in "quantitative precipitation" of the DNA.  I asked him
about this, and he said it meant nearly total precipitation of the DNA.  

So, a few questions.  Does ANYONE else out there use the term "quantitative
precipitation?"  If so, then is "qualitative precipitation" what happens
when almost none of your DNA precipitates?  And wouldn't it just be better
to say "almost total precipitation" or "a damn fine precipitation" than
"quantitative precipitation?"  What can I say...jargon makes me queasy.

Just curious.  

Ed Beaty
Ed_Beaty at qms1.life.uiuc.edu