Humphry Davy later records This substance was accidentally discovered about two years ago by M. Courtois, a manufacturer of saltpetre at Paris.

In his processes for procuring soda from the ashes of sea weeds, (cendres de vareck) he found the metallic vessels much corroded; and in searching for the cause of this effect, he made the discovery.

The substance is procured from the ashes, after the extraction of the carbonate of soda, with great facility, and merely by the action of sulfuric acid:— when the acid is concentrated, so as to produce much heat, the substance appears as a vapour of a beautiful violet colour, which condenses in crystals having the colour and the lustre of plumbago.

In 1831, he was awarded 6,000 francs as part of the Montyon Prize by L'Academie royale des sciences, for the medicinal value of the element.

In the year of his death, under the heading Obituary, the Journal de chimie médicale drily noted his passing with:"Bernard Courtois, the discoverer of iodine, died at Paris the 27th of September, 1838, leaving his widow without fortune.