Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/146

68 Belgian government introduced the same into Belgium after the revolution. The expenses are included in the annual budgets. The medal is distributed in gold, silver gilt, and silver. The intrinsic value is 100, 50 to 60, and 30 to 40 francs. It is worn at the button hole by a tri-coloured ribbon, black, red and yellow. The front of the medal (Tab. II. Nos. 11 and 12) represents the effigy of the King, with the inscription, ' Leopold Premier, Roi des Belges.' The reverse shows in the middle a crown, beneath which is, each time when presented, engraved, the name, domicile, and the cause of the reward, of the recipient. The legend is 'Dévouement, Courage, Humanité— Récompense publique' (Self-devotion, courage, humanity— public reward).

By a decree of the 19th April, 1849, the following bye-laws were added:

1. The medal is in future to be adorned with a crown.

2. The distribution of the colours of the ribbon by which the medal is worn suspended at the button-hole is shown (Plate 19. Tab. III. Nos. 14, 15 and 16).

MEDAL FOR VACCINATION. It originated in Holland in 1818, for the encouragement of vaccination. The value of the gold medal is 50 gulden (about 4 guineas), and is presented to medical practitioners who have gratuitously vaccinated more than one hundred children in the course of the year.

The same medal (Tab. II. No. 10) is now also introduced in Belgium.