In Genetic Medicine: A Logic of Disease, Barton Childs demonstrates that knowledge of the ways both genes and environment contribute to disease provides a rational basis for medical thinking. This "genetic" medicine, he explains, should help the physician use the results of laboratory tests to perceive the uniqueness of the patient as well as that of the family and the cultural conditions in which the patient's condition arose. Childs thus provides a conceptual framework within which to teach and practice a humane medicine.