University of Montpellier
The University of Montpellier, one of the most important university towns in the south of France, served as the stage for the Marquis de la Taillade-Espinasse's most spectacular scientific demonstration and the public transformation of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille from a supposed beast into a civilized man. It was here that the marquis's controversial Fluidum Letale theory found its most dramatic, and ultimately deceptive, validation, and where Grenouille first wielded the power of his artificially created human scent over a large, educated audience.
The Cave-Man Exhibition and the Triumph of the Fluidum Letale Theory
Several days after his arrival in Montpellier, Grenouille was presented as the scientific sensation of the year in the great hall of the university. The Marquis de la Taillade-Espinasse delivered a lecture to a crowd of several hundred people, describing Grenouille as living proof of his theory of earth's corrupting gas, the Fluidum Letale. He stripped Grenouille of his rags piece by piece, pointing to his scars, a club-foot, and a hunchback as evidence of the gas's devastating effects. The lecture was an immense success, with the learned audience applauding vigorously and lining up to examine the exhibit. The marquis pledged that within eight days, using his vital ventilation therapy and a special diet, he would restore this doomed creature to health, inviting the audience to return in one week to witness the proof.
The Second Lecture and the Power of the Human Scent
Precisely one week later, the marquis once again presented Grenouille in the great hall of the university. The crush was monstrous, with all of Montpellier—not just the scientific community but also high society, including many ladies—coming to see the fabled cave-man. The marquis first circulated drawings depicting Grenouille's former ugliness, then had the new Grenouille led in, dressed in a handsome velvet blue coat and silk shirt, rouged, powdered, and coiffed. He walked erect, with dainty steps and an elegant swing of the hips, bowing and smiling to the crowd. The change was so egregious that even the marquis's enemies were speechless. As the marquis set forth his theory again, Grenouille, who had doused himself with his perfume, watched with great satisfaction as his scent captured the spectators. He saw how it altered their facial expressions, turning critical brows into childlike ease and fearful souls into amity. At the lecture's end, the entire assemblage rose to its feet and broke into frenetic cheering for the Fluidum Vitale and Taillade-Espinasse. Grenouille, mingling among the crowd, knew that these ovations were in reality meant for him alone, although not one of the cheering people suspected anything of the sort.
The University as a Site of Scientific Authority and Social Spectacle
The University of Montpellier, as the setting for these events, represents the institutional authority of science and learning in the eighteenth century. The marquis's use of the university's great hall for his demonstrations underscores his desire for official validation of his unorthodox theories. The presence of members from the medical faculty, the botanical association, the agricultural school, the chemo-physical club, the Freemasons' Lodge, and other learned societies highlights the university's role as a hub for intellectual discourse and the public consumption of scientific ideas. The transformation of a criminal trial into a scientific spectacle, and the subsequent orgy that erupted during Grenouille's execution, demonstrates how the university's space could be co-opted for purposes far beyond its intended academic function, becoming a stage for mass delusion and the manipulation of human emotion through scent.
