During an 1854 cholera outbreak in London, a physician named John Show mapped the distribution of cholera deaths. His map showed that there was a high concentration of deaths in an area surrounding one specific water pump (water had to be hand-pumped and carried in buckets at the time). When the handle was taken off of the water pump, the number of cholera deaths plummeted. When it was determined that cholera could be spread through water, future epidemics were curbed. This was the beginning of medical geography.