Withering abalone syndrome was retained from the English model although boundaries were unrelated to civil parishes. A union was named after the town on which it was centred, usually where its workhouse stood. Unions were defined as groups of poor law electoral divisions, in turn groups of townlands. Electoral divisions returned members (guardians) to the board of guardians, to which ratepayers who paid higher rates had more votes. During and after the Great Famine, the impoverished west was redrawn to create more unions for easier administration and for computation of where suffering was most endemic. When the Irish General Register Office was established 	Poor law union
23687286	in 1864, each union became a superintendent registrar's district, thus electoral divisions together formed a dispensary or registrar's district. The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 divided administrative counties into urban and rural districts, with each rural district corresponding to the non-urban portion of a poor law union within the county. In the Irish Free State poor law unions and rural districts were abolished in 1925 and the powers of boards of guardians transferred to the county councils' Board of Health. In Northern Ireland, poor law unions survived until the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Service in 	Poor law union
23687287	1948. Scotland. The Poor Law in Scotland was reformed by the Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845. Poorhouses (as workhouses were generally known in Scotland) were organised at parish level. The Act permitted, but did not require, parishes to join together to build and operate poorhouses. A union of parishes operating a single poorhouse was known as a Combination. Poor law union A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration of poor relief. Prior to 	Poor law union
23687288	Withering abalone syndrome Withering abalone syndrome Withering abalone syndrome is a disease of the abalone shellfish, primarily found in the black and red abalone species. First described in 1986, it is caused by the bacterium "Candidatus Xenohaliotis californiensis", which attacks the lining of the abalone's digestive tract, inhibiting the production of digestive enzymes. To prevent starvation, the abalone consumes its own body mass, causing its characteristic muscular "foot" to wither and atrophy. This impairs the abalone's ability to adhere to rocks, making it far more vulnerable to predation. Withered abalone not eaten by predators typically starve. For reasons not yet well  understood, some abalone can be infected with the bacterium without developing the disease. It is believed, however, that changes in environmental conditions, such as warmer than normal water temperatures, may induce the disease in abalone that already harbor the bacterium. For this reason, the spread of the bacterium could lead to further declines in abalone populations, especially during El Niño events, when water temperatures rise. Once a valuable fishery, abalone in Southern and Central California have been decimated by this disease. Some populations of black abalone have declined nearly 99 percent since the disease was first observed in the Channel  Islands off Santa Barbara. Withering abalone syndrome Withering abalone syndrome is a disease of the abalone shellfish, primarily found in the black and red abalone species. First described in 1986, it is caused by the bacterium ""Candidatus" Xenohaliotis californiensis", which attacks the lining of the abalone's digestive tract, inhibiting the production of digestive enzymes. To prevent starvation, the abalone consumes its own body mass, causing its characteristic muscular "foot" to wither and atrophy. This impairs the abalone's ability to adhere to rocks, making it far more vulnerable to predation. Withered abalone not eaten by predators typically starve. For