[citation needed] After one semester, Meyer went to Heidelberg to work under Robert Bunsen,[1] where he also heard lectures on organic chemistry by Emil Erlenmeyer.

[1] At the age of 23 on Baeyer's recommendation, Meyer was engaged by Fehling as his assistant at Stuttgart Polytechnic, but within a year he left to succeed Johannes Wislicenus at Zurich.

There he remained for thirteen years, and it was during this period that he devised his well-known method for determining vapour densities, and carried out his experiments on the dissociation of the halogens.

In 1882, on the death of Wilhelm Weith (1844–1881), professor of chemistry at Zurich University, he undertook to continue the lectures on benzene derivatives, and this led him to the discovery of thiophen.

[1] Overworked and overtaxed, Meyer's mental status suffered, leading to several minor and major nervous breakdowns during the last years of his life.