Scientific study of male and others with illness (10)
I believe the answer is:
metallurgy
'scientific study' is the definition.
'metallurgy' can be an answer for 'study' (metallurgy is a kind of study). I am not sure about the 'scientific' bit.
'male and others with illness' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'and others' becomes 'etal' ('et al.' can be a synonym of 'and others').
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'illness' becomes 'lurgy' (I've seen this before**).
'm'+'etal'+'lurgy'='METALLURGY'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for metallurgy that I've seen before include "Science of smelting, alloys, etc" , "Branch of science" , "Study of some elements" , "Study of smelting, alloys, etc" , "Lead scientific study" .)