In a relatively short period of time, the concept of family practice has matured into that of family medicine. This can be seen not only in the book under review but also in the fields of medical education and medical delivery. Physicians and medical students, the public and the government, are becoming increasingly aware of the desirability and practicality of a well-trained, well-educated, humanistic primary physician who can bring entire families into the health care system. At one time a physician had to memorize overwhelming masses of unrelated minutiae to be knowledgeable in a special area in depth. Today, previously unrelated and isolated details are now systematized; family medicine is a means for applying this large mass of medical expertise. Rakel's book demonstrates that there is a specific segment of knowledge easily and operationally classifiable as family medicine. As with the traditional specialties, the broad new specialty of family medicine