Doing The Maths

[billy]

sorry for not getting back sooner ray.

In time all things shall be counted and weighed, reminds me of a knights tale
yet not until Seventeen Ninety Eight
did Monsieur Pinel, famed breaker of chains
which bound the insane, pause to explain
that there were but four mental disorders:
madness had been drawn and quartered i like the way quartered works with four
and hung from above.

You might be manic or melancholic,
maybe demented or idiotic;
you could suffer combinations of it - it feels singular where combinations doesn't
Monsieur Pinel knew his stuff.
With that absence of equivocation
shrinks use when they talk to patients,
he said that four was quite enough.

There’s no evidence that angry punters
disappointed at the dearth of numbers,
manned barricades or raised their voices
to express displeasure at the meagre choices.
What were they thinking of?

I’m guessing, but as near as dammit
a billion souls lived on the planet.
Now mankind’s increased seven-fold
and madness populates the globe.
Four hundred mental illnesses
unearthed in the last two centuries.
We’re beaten, I reckon,
a hundred to seven the number seems arbitrary (which i'm sure it is )
by burgeoning insanities.

The medicalisation of everyday life
isn’t likely to keep me awake at night –
I never go without my sleeping tablets.
But how many planets shall we require
at some future date, so all may aspire
to their designated quota of madness?

Make that four hundred and one. i can't see any relevance to this line, though i say that; the line is readable and rounds off the thing well. i suppose that means it has relevance then mm

the title does work but i'd love to see something with more depth or wordplay. not sure the first line adds anything. a strong original write that has some good humour in it no real nits apart from an odd one. i did enjoy some of the word choices.
is it meant to have a rhyme scheme?

thanks for the read.