From my experience, people think most people back then lived around 40 years, while some lived less and some lived more.

I don’t know specifically about that time period, but there have been dips and peaks in life expectancy over time. In the latter half of the 19th century in England, life expectancy at adulthood was the same or better than it is today.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2672390/

There was actually a major, severe DECLINE after that associated with globalization, trade, and further industrialization, which is where many charts begin.

Think about how incredible that is - nothing we would recognize as modern medicine, but adults living just as long. I can’t think of any greater indictment of our health in modern civilization, especially given the amount of resources we expend. I mean, just think about - aside from the improvements in child mortality which are almost entirely just from now nearly century old antibiotics and vaccines technology, we spend 20% of our GDP to achieve the same results as the 1850s English who got them for next to nothing in comparison. Progress!

If you want to look at the silver lining, we have much easier lives and access to a tremendous number of cheap, rich foods (albeit unhealthy) and plenty of cheap recreation and drugs. We have worse living habits than them and spend much more time in sedentary positions. It’s probably impressive we can keep the same life expectancy with all those factors.

> we spend 20% of our GDP to achieve the same results as the 1850s English who got them for next to nothing in comparison.

I have to assume that our lives are overall much easier medically, though. Breaking a limb (or even losing one) is not nearly as big of a deal now than it probably was then, for instance.