Hermann Pauly

Hermann Pauly was born in Deutz (now part of Cologne) on 18 July 1870. His father was Friedrich Hermann Pauly, a mine director, and his mother was Henriette Wintgens (or Wittgens).[1] He graduated from the Adolfinum Moers Hermann secondary school, then studied natural sciences at the University of Giessen in Hesse, Leipzig University and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn.[2] He became a member of the Corps Teutonia Bonn in 1890.[3] He studied chemistry under Richard Anschütz in Bonn, and gained a PhD in 1894.[2][4]

Pauly worked for a short period at Schering AG in Berlin, then became a research assistant to Hermann Emil Fischer at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. He then became a teaching assistant to Rudolf Nietzki at the University of Basel.[2] He returned to Bonn, where he qualified as a professor in 1901.[5] In 1904, he joined Albrecht Kossel at Heidelberg University.[2] Pauly studied for his habilitation at the University of Würzburg, and was appointed an assistant professor in 1909. In 1912 he joined a private laboratory. In 1918 he was appointed a full Professor at Würzburg.[2] Pauly became a member of the Corpsschleifenträger der Lusatia Leipzig in 1922.[6] Hermann Pauly was awarded an honorary doctorate in medicine in 1932. He died in Würzburg on 31 October 1950.[2]

Pauly published 71 papers on organic chemistry and physiological chemistry and filed at least 14 patents related to pharmaceutical products, fragrances and antiseptic preparations.[2][lower-alpha 1] He correctly confirmed the finding of Thomas Aldrich that the formula for adrenaline was C₉H₁₃NO₃ despite the fact that he was not working with pure samples, which only emerged much later.[8] Pauly spent many years studying the diazo-reactions of proteins.[9] In 1904 he published a paper that described what became known as the Pauly reaction, a method of detecting the presence of the amino acids tyrosine or histidine in proteins.[2][10] In 1915 Pauly used diazo-benzene arsinic acid rather than diazo-benzene sulphonic acid to prepare an insoluble diazo-compound. He found that a tyrosine ring took on two molecules of the diazo-compound to form a bis-diazo-tyrosine. A histidine ring did the same.[9] These discoveries proved invaluable to the work of Karl Landsteiner on immunity and allergy.[11]