Marquis de la Taillade-Espinasse

The Marquis de la Taillade-Espinasse is an important character in novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. He is a feudal lord and member of parliament in Toulouse. At the age of 40, he leaves the court in Versailles to devote himself to science. 

The Marquis writes works on national economics and the education of children, and studies agricultural economics. His current work deals with the "fluidum letale", which is related to the proximity of the earth and the vital forces of man. To confirm his theory, he uses Grenouille, whom he meets after his time in the cave in the Plomb du Cantal.

The Marquis argues that "the fluidum letale had already so assaulted Grenouille that his twenty-five-year-old body clearly showed the marks of senile deterioration. [...]  And now his former healthy condition could be restored only by the wholesale expulsion of the fluidum, using a vital ventilation machine, devised by Taillade-Espinasse himself." (Part 2, 53%).

The Marquis uses Grenouille as a research su...