"To make a vaunt of being poor was another of the incidents of his splenetic state,

I wonder how the association of the spleen with quick bad temper ever arose. I can't remember much of its actual functions besides its being a reservoir for red cells, which it can inject into circulation on demand. In chronic malaria it may become markedly enlarged, and a medical missionary who had lived in what is now called Myanmar
told us that a common method of assassination there used to be a blow with a club just below or on the last rib on the left, causing rupture of the spleen. My daughter-in-law ruptured her spleen in an accident sliding on a sled, and has ever since had reduced tolerance of cold weather. But I have no reason to suppose that her consistently pleasant manner was result of having her spleen removed.

If you want to read about the spleen,here is an article from the New England Journal of Medicine:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/317/25/1559