I feel like any time I read a wikipedia page about some historical figure born around then they always are described as "sickly" in their childhood. Like fuck, weren't there any health kids back then running around with those hoops and the stick or singing creepy songs in fields and... idk whatever the fuck else kids did back then, commune with black goats who send them on wicked errands to corrupt their soul to the dark prince?
Dickens does a great job of portraying this - most of fucked up shit that he describes was just commonplace observation in Victorian London. Also, his article on the sheer amount of horse shit that was sitting on the streets all the time is mind-boggling: a big reason the aristocracy retreated to the country every summer is because the horse shit would turn to dust and you'd be breathing horse shit dust everywhere you went.