Cyril Lloyd Elgood M.D., F.R.C.P., honorary physician to the king of Persia (Shah)[1] (1893–1970) commonly referred to as Cyril Elgood[1][2] was a British physician (graduate of St. Bartholomew's Hospital) and historian of medicine in Persia/Iran,[1][3] best remembered for his breakthrough studies on the history of medical and educational advances of Persia during the period of the 1500s to mid 18th century.
He also practiced medicine in Persia, as well as back home in Britain where he was a general practitioner in Wareham, Dorset as well as a consultant to two major English hospitals.
[3] Elgood was also a cosmopolitan man travelling to most of the Persian Gulf states adding such countries as Sudan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia to the list of places he had visited where he had transiently practiced medicine and lecturing.
[3] Elgood is also known, although less so, (due to his diminished dwelling on the topic[3]) on the topic of Medical Universities in Iran namely the Academy of Gondishapur where he delineates how certain elements of Greek and the Persian medicine were adapted using the then global Arabic text to educate physicians and health care workers in the city of Gondishapur in today's province of Ahvaz.
The arrival of syphilis via Europe earned the ailment the nickname of the French Pox[10] possibly due to its secondary syphilitic presentation with gray, circular marks all over the body mimicking small pox; Persia, according to Elgood, was at the peak of its performance medically despite having to deal with newly arriving ailments and evolving existing ones.