immunology made a great advance towards the end of the 19th century, through rapid developments, in the study of humoral immunity and cellular immunity. particularly important was the work of paul ehrlich (1854–1915), who proposed the side-chain theory to explain the specificity of the antigen-antibody reaction. the nobel prize for 1908 was jointly awarded to ehrlich and the founder of cellular immunology, ilya mechnikov (1845–1916).