  Based on the recent discoveries of free floating brown dwarfs we derive
estimates of the local mass density of this population of objects. Mass density
estimates from various surveys span the range 0.03 to 0.005 M_Sun/pc^3. These
estimates are compared with the local mass densities of the other constituents
of the galactic disk and, in particular, with the dynamically determined total
local mass density. We argue that brown dwarfs might indeed contribute
significantly to the local mass budget, but that a local mass density as high
as 0.03 M_Sun/pc^3 as suggested by Ruiz et al. (1997) is rather unlikely.
