  A method for measuring the transmittivity of optical samples by using
squeezed--vacuum radiation is illustrated. A squeezed vacuum field generated by
a below--threshold optical parametric oscillator is propagated through a
nondispersive medium and detected by a homodyne apparatus. The variance of the
detected quadrature is used for measuring the transmittivity. With this method
it is drastically reduced the number of photons passing through the sample
during the measurement interval. The results of some tests are reported.
