Editing Lothar Meyer (section)

==Career==
Meyer was born in [[Varel]], Germany (then part of the [[Duchy of Oldenburg]]). He was the son of Friedrich August Meyer, a physician, and Anna Biermann. After attending the Altes Gymnasium in Oldenburg, he studied medicine at the [[University of Zurich]] in 1851. Two years later, he studied [[pathology]] at the [[University of Würzburg]] as a student of [[Rudolf Virchow]]. At Zurich, he had studied under [[Carl Ludwig]], which had prompted him to devote his attention to physiological chemistry. After graduating as a Doctor of Medicine from Würzburg in 1854, he went to [[Heidelberg University]], where [[Robert Bunsen]] held the chair of chemistry. In 1858, he received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the [[University of Breslau]] with a thesis on the effects of [[carbon monoxide]] on the [[blood]]. With this interest in the [[physiology]] of [[respiration (physiology)|respiration]], he had recognized that [[oxygen]] combines with the [[hemoglobin]] in blood.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=g-kKPYLzBR0C&dq=Julius+Lothar+Meyer+hemoglobin&pg=PA54 Sergei Vinogradskii and the Cycle of Life: From the Thermodynamics of Life ...], Lloyd Ackert</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4S60ronf9ooC&dq=Julius+Lothar+Meyer+hemoglobin&pg=PA51 The Disappearing Spoon...and other true tales from the Periodic Table], Sam Kean</ref>

Influenced by the mathematical teaching of [[Gustav Kirchhoff]], he took up the study of mathematical physics at the University of [[Königsberg]] under [[Franz Ernst Neumann]] and in 1859, after having received his [[habilitation]] (certification for university teaching), became ''[[Privatdozent]]'' in physics and chemistry at the University of [[Breslau]]. In 1866, Meyer accepted a post at the [[Eberswalde Forestry Academy]] at Neustadt-Eberswalde but two years later was appointed to a professorship at the [[University of Karlsruhe|Karlsruhe Polytechnic]].<ref name="eb">{{EB1911|wstitle=Meyer, Julius Lothar|volume=18|pages=348–349}}</ref>

In 1872, Meyer was the first to suggest that the six [[carbon]] atoms in the [[benzene]] ring (that had been proposed a few years earlier by [[August Kekulé]]) were interconnected by single bonds only, the fourth valence of each carbon atom being directed toward the interior of the ring.

During the [[Franco-Prussian War]], the Polytechnic was used as a hospital and Meyer took an active role in the care of the wounded. In 1876, Meyer became Professor of Chemistry at the [[University of Tübingen]], where he served until his death from a [[stroke]] on 11 April 1895 at the age of 64.<ref name="eb"/>