Lothar von Meyer. Portrait of Julius Lothar von Meyer (1830-95), German chemist. In 1876 Meyer became the first Professor of Chemistry at Tubingen University. In 1857 he had recognised that haemoglobin in blood binds chemically with oxygen to carry it around the body. Independently of Mendeleyev, Meyer studied the properties of elements and placed them in groups on a periodic table. His first table, of 28 elements, was produced in 1864 and expanded to 53 elements in 1870. He also showed that atomic volume is a function of atomic weight. Meyer also studied organic chemistry and was first to suggest that benzene was comprised of a ring of carbon atoms.