People died of starvation in their houses, in the fields, and on the roads. Disease became epidemic. More died of disease than of starvation. About one million perished. Most were deliberated from long starvation when they finally succumbed to typhus, cholera, dysentery, and scurvy. There was even an increase in the number of certified lunatics in Ireland (Costigan, 1969). During the worst of the famine, peasants were perishing in the night and their bodies would be found in the morning partially devoured by rats. At the worst in 1847 the uncoffined dead were being buried in trenches. Starving dogs waited for the moment when the graves were unguarded. One million emigrated and many were dying from fever along the journey.
         The population had fallen by one-fifth to 6.5 million by the end of the famine. The hardest hit regions were the south and the west (Gibbon, 1975). Cholera hit in 1849 and killed many of the famine survivors.