British Census Commissioners in 1841 had declared the population of Ireland to be 8,175,124. During the Famine years, 1845-50, Ireland's population declined in the millions due to deaths from starvation and disease and from mass emigration to North America and England.
Located at the rear of the abdominal cavity in the retroperitoneal space, the kidneys receive blood from the paired renal arteries, and drain into the paired renal veins. Each kidney excretes urine into a ureter which empties into the bladder. Renal physiology is the study of kidney function, while nephrology is the medical specialty concerned with kidney diseases. Diseases of the kidney are diverse, but individuals with kidney disease frequently display characteristic clinical features.
Within the kidney the movement of substances, between the bloodstream and excretory fluid, occurs in the microscope tubules (nephrons) and involves both active and passive transport. Within the kidney tubules there is a two-way movement of substances â waste substances pass from the bloodstream into the nephrons to be excreted and substances required by the body and removed from the urine and returned into the bloodstream.