Paul Uhlenhuth

Who was Paul Uhlenhuth?

Paul Theodor Uhlenhuth was a German bacteriologist and hygienist and an assistant professor at the Institute of Hygiene at the University of Greifswald. He is famous in the annals of forensic science for developing the species precipitin test which could distinguish human blood from animal blood.

Starting with the a significant discovery by Emil von Behring that animals inoculated with diphtheria toxin formed defensive substances in their blood serum. These defensive substances were named precipitins. Other scientists principally Jules Bordet tried devising serums against other infectious agents; They found that the precipitins were specific to the antagonist injected. In 1900, building off Bordet's work, Uhlenhuth injected hen's blood into rabbits, then he mixed serum from the rabbit with egg white. The egg proteins separated from the mixture. He was able to conclude that the blood of different species of animals contained unique proteins. These discoveries extended to being able to differentiate human blood from animal blood.