Tihomil Beritić (24 June 1919 – 6 April 1999) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n physician. Born in

Herceg Novi Herceg Novi ( cyrl, Херцег Нови, ) is a coastal town in Montenegro located at the Western entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of the Herceg Novi Municipality with around 33,000 ...

, he graduated from the

School of Medicine, University of Zagreb The School of Medicine ( hr, Medicinski fakultet or MEF) in Zagreb is a Croatian medical school affiliated with the University of Zagreb. It is the oldest and biggest of the four medical schools in Croatia (the other three being in Osijek, Rijeka ...

in 1943, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1980. His research focus was

hematology Hematology ( always spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the produc ...

and

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...

. He spent most of his career at the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health in Zagreb as the founder and head of the Occupational Disease Department. He was also a long-time editor of professional journals ''Liječnički vjesnik'' and ''Arhiv za higijenu rada i toksikologiju''. Beritić was primarily engaged in toxicology research of heavy metals, especially lead poisoning. He studied the effects of lead poisoning on the

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes th ...

and

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...

s, as well as therapeutic treatments for lead poisoning. He proved that the lead neuropathy is a

motor neuron disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

. Beritić was a full member of the

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop J ...

, and the chairman of its Allergology Committee. He was an honorary president of the Croatian Toxicological Society. Beritić and his mother, Djina-Gertruda, were named among the

Righteous among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...

in 1994 for having sheltered a Jewish child during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Profile
YadVashem.org; accessed 30 August 2016.

References

1919 births 1999 deaths Croats of Montenegro Croatian medical researchers Croatian toxicologists Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Croatian Righteous Among the Nations People from Herceg Novi School of Medicine, University of Zagreb alumni Place of death missing Yugoslav physicians {{Croatia-scientist-stub