Sentence:  The old man ... began to suffer in the body as well as the mind. He had formed the determination of setting out in person for Dumfriesshire, when, after having been dogged, peevish, and snappish to his clerks and domestics, to an unusual and almost intolerable degree, the <WSD>acrimonious</WSD> humours settled in a hissing-hot fit of the gout, which is a well-known tamer of the most froward spirits, ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Harsh and sharp, or bitter and not pleasant to the taste; acrid, pungent.