At the time of the diagnosis, the blood concentration was 4000 μg per liter, which represents about 16.8 mg of mercury in the blood (total volume of blood, about 4.2 liters) and about 336 mg in the entire body (since only about 5 percent of an absorbed dose of methylmercury remains in blood). Since dimethylmercury has a density of 3.2 g per milliliter, this amount of mercury is contained in only 0.11 ml of liquid dimethylmercury. Since the elimination half-life in hair was about 75 days and the interval between exposure and blood studies was just over 150 days, the original body burden of mercury may have been four times the amount at diagnosis, or about 1344 mg, requiring absorption of 0.44 ml of liquid dimethylmercury (perhaps more if a portion of the absorbed dose was promptly excreted through exhalation, as reported in mice exposed to dimethylmercury21).