Apparently in mercury amalgam, the mercury must be bound in such a way that toxic compounds do not form. And in mercury
compounds, mercurous salts are far less dangerous than
mercuric salts. It was an organic mercury compound that was
able to penetrate the chemist's glove (type of glove not stated) and the penetrate her skin so rapidly that a quckly lethal dose was absorbed. I had organic chemistry sixty years ago, and don't remember enough to know how to search for information about mercury toxicity.

I found that citation about chem prof poisoning. I was wrong in that death did not ensue rapidly.
http://www.organik.uni-erlangen.de/bauer/mercury.html