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.
The kidneys' job is to remove wastes and excess water and salts from the blood. Kidneys receive blood through the renal arteries (figure 1). The blood flows into parts of the kidney called nephrons (figure 2). Each nephron is made of a glomerulus and a tubule. Each kidney contains hundreds of thousands of nephrons. The glomeruli filter the blood, removing waste products from the blood.