Dapitan
Dapitan, 16 November 1895
[MR. BENITO FRANCIA]
MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,
Through the worthy official physician of this capital I have learned of your desire that I write something about the practices of the quacks. Though the undertaking has always seemed to me, and still seems to me, superior to my knowledge, nevertheless the honor that you do me and my desire to serve you have overcome my laziness and the tedium that the pen inspires me. From my notes and reminiscences therefore I have made a summary and if it pleases Your Lordship, please consider it dedicated to you personally and if it does not, Your Lordship is to blame for having asked for pears from the elm, as the popular saying goes.
I will not conclude this letter, however, without begging you to permit me to express to you the deep resentment that your phrase, “the unfortunate separatist ideas of Rizal” has caused me. Said by another I would have shrugged my shoulders; but said by Your Lordship, the Inspector General of Welfare and Health, a physician and a colleague, it deserves to be rectified. I reject therefore such an opinion and I do not believe that Your Lordship or anybody else worthy of my consideration has a right to qualify my ideas as such. I have not been tried yet nor have I been allowed to make my defense.
Begging you to pardon my frankness, I have the honor to offer myself, as I have already proven it, your most attentive, faithful servant who kisses your hand.
JOSE RIZAL
02-874 [Blumentritt V.2]