<P> Noli Me Tángere (Latin for Don't Touch Me) is a novel written by José Rizal, one of the national heroes of the Philippines, during the colonization of the country by Spain to describe perceived inequities of the Spanish Catholic priests and the ruling government . </P> <P> Originally written in Spanish, the book is more commonly published and read in the Philippines in either Tagalog or English . Together with its sequel, El Filibusterismo, the reading of Noli is obligatory for high school students throughout the country . The two novels are widely considered as the national epic of the Philippines and are performed in non-musical operas throughout the country . </P> <P> Rizal entitled this novel as such drawing inspiration from "Touch Me Not"--the technical name of a particularly painful type of cancer (back in his time, it is unknown what is the modern name of said disease). He proposed to probe all the cancers of Filipino society that everyone else felt too painful to touch . </P> <P> Early English translations of the novel used titles like An Eagle Flight (1900) and The Social Cancer (1912), disregarding the symbolism of the title, but the more recent translations were published using the original Latin title . It has also been noted by the Austro - Hungarian writer Ferdinand Blumentritt that "Noli Me Tángere" was a name used by ophthalmologists for cancer of the eyelids; that as an ophthalmologist himself Rizal was influenced by this fact is suggested in the novel's dedication, "To My household". </P>

Where was the title noli me tangere taken