Not mentioned was that during that time, Europe was being psychologically ravaged by the White Plague (tuberculosis), that left the average person terrified, morbid, and depressed.
The disease could kill quickly or slowly. You could look healthy and drop dead; or you could be horribly crippled and in agony for months. The disease could afflict any organ in the body.
Some people became hyper-creative, others hyper-sexual. Many were confined to wheelchairs. Some went insane. Some looked like they were starving to death.
People became very afraid of things like premature burial, vampirism, ghouls, and other horrors.
And then there were all the other horrible diseases.
The late 19th century was roughly the beginning of what we may call the modern era of medical science. But they might as well have been in the dark ages compared to today. Far too many people romanticize the past. For most folks back then life was short and brutish.
On top of all the deadly diseases we don’t even give a thought to in the modern world, we were busy trying to kill each other off with insane levels of industrial pollution and contaminated food, water and even medicines. I read a book once that examined food processing during the height of the industrial revolution along with the levels of air and water pollution and I honestly don’t know how we survived as a species. Some of what was discussed made me physically nauseous.
As just one example... meat packers used to soak their product in formaldehyde and market it as “preserved meat.” According to the book, the embalming fluid gave the meat a sweet taste and made it very popular. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that the practice was exposed. Fortunately, most people in those days didn’t eat nearly as much meat as we do. Still the practice likely contributed to infant and child mortality rates and made a lot of adults sick w/o them knowing why.