Abstract.We have compiled a catalogue of the gas content for a sample of 1916 galaxies, considered to be a fair representation of "normality". The definition of a "normal" galaxy adopted in this work implies that we have purposely excluded from the catalogue galaxies having distorted morphology (such as interaction bridges, tails or lopsidedness) and/or any signature of peculiar kinematics (such as polar rings, counterrotating disks or other decoupled components). In contrast, we have included systems hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the catalogue. This catalogue revises previous compendia on the ISM content of galaxies published by Bregman et al. (1992) and Casoli et al. (1998), and compiles data available in the literature from several small samples of galaxies. Masses for warm dust, atomic and molecular gas, as well as X-ray luminosities have been converted to a uniform distance scale taken from the Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC). We have used two different normalization factors to explore the variation of the gas content along the Hubble sequence: the blue luminosity (L B ) and the square of linear diameter (D 2 25 ). Our catalogue significantly improves the statistics of previous reference catalogues and can be used in future studies to define a template ISM content for "normal" galaxies along the Hubble sequence. The catalogue can be accessed on-line and is also available at the Centre des Données Stellaires (CDS).

Abstract.A study of the gas content in 1038 interacting galaxies, essentially selected from Arp, Arp & Madore, Vorontsov-Velyaminov catalogues and some of the published literature, is presented here. The data on the interstellar medium have been extracted from a number of sources in the literature and compared with a sample of 1916 normal galaxies. The mean values for each of the different ISM tracers (FIR, 21 cm, CO lines, X-ray) have been estimated by means of survival analysis techniques, in order to take into account the presence of upper limits. From the data it appears that interacting galaxies have a higher gas content than normal ones. Galaxies classified as ellipticals have both a dust and gas content one order of magnitude higher than normal. Spirals have in most part a normal dust and HI content but an higher molecular gas mass. The X-ray luminosity also appears higher than that of normal galaxies of same morphological type, both including or excluding AGNs. We considered the alternative possibilities that the molecular gas excess may derive from the existence of tidal torques which produce gas infall from the surrounding regions or from a different metallicity which affects the X conversion factor between the observed CO line luminosity and the H 2 calculated mass. According to our tests, it appears that interacting galaxies possess a higher molecular mass than normal galaxies but with a similar star formation efficiency.

Abstract. We present a new sample of northern isolated galaxies, which are defined by the physical criterion that they were not affected by other galaxies in their evolution during the last few Gyr. To find them we used the logarithmic ratio, f , between inner and tidal forces acting upon the candidate galaxy by a possible perturber. The analysis of the distribution of the f -values for the galaxies in the Coma cluster lead us to adopt the criterion f ≤ −4.5 for isolated galaxies. The candidates were chosen from the CfA catalog of galaxies within the volume defined by cz ≤ 5000 km s −1 , galactic latitude higher than 40 • and declination ≥−2.5 • . The selection of the sample, based on redshift values (when available), magnitudes and sizes of the candidate galaxies and possible perturbers present in the same field is discussed. The final list of selected isolated galaxies includes 203 objects from the initial 1706. The list contains only truly isolated galaxies in the sense defined, but it is by no means complete, since all the galaxies with possible companions under the f -criterion but with unknown redshift were discarded. We also selected a sample of perturbed galaxies comprised of all the disk galaxies from the initial list with companions (with known redshift) satisfying f ≥ −2 and ∆(cz) ≤ 500 km s −1 ; a total of 130 objects. The statistical comparison of both samples shows significant differences in morphology, sizes, masses, luminosities and color indices. Confirming previous results, we found that late spiral, Sc-type galaxies are, in particular, more frequent among isolated galaxies, whereas Lenticular galaxies are more abundant among perturbed galaxies. Isolated systems appear to be smaller, less luminous and bluer than interacting objects. We also found that bars are twice as frequent among perturbed galaxies compared to isolated galaxies, in particular for early Spirals and Lenticulars. The perturbed galaxies have higher L FIR /L B and M mol /L B ratios, but the atomic gas content is similar for the two samples. The analysis of the luminosity-size and mass-luminosity relations shows similar trends for both families, the main difference being the almost total absence of big, bright and massive galaxies among the family of isolated systems, together with the almost total absence of small, faint and low mass galaxies among the perturbed systems. All these aspects indicate that the evolution induced by interactions with neighbors would proceed from late, small, faint and low mass Spirals to earlier, bigger, more luminous and more massive spiral and lenticular galaxies, producing at the same time a larger fraction of barred galaxies but preserving the same relations between global parameters. The properties we found for our sample of isolated galaxies appear similar to those of high redshift galaxies, suggesting that the present-day isolated galaxies could be quietly evolved, unused building blocks surviving in low density environments.