IntroductionThere are many important algebraic systems which do not fit conveniently into the theory of abstract algebras (that is, algebras whose operations are everywhere defined). In the fist place there are various types of groupoids, categories and ringoids, which have often been treated as partial algebras, that is, as sets with operations not everywhere defined. The general theory of partial algebras has been developed t o some extent, but its content does not compare favourably with that of the theory of "full" abstract algebras. One of its many drawbacks is the obvious difficulty of defining a free partial algebra with given operators on given generators in the absence of some rule for determining the domains of the operators. I n the more important special cases, however, this difficulty does not appear. For example, the term free category has an obvious meaning; it is the category of composite arrows generated by a scheme of arrows (directed graph) aa described in [4], p. 130, and [5]. One may also impose "relations of commutativity" on the arrows and thus present categories by means of generators and relations. The theory of partial algebras seems to be unsuitable for a discussion of such constructions.As a second example we may consider some familiar graded slgebraic structures. A graded abelian group G = @ G, can, of course, be considered as a full abstract algebra, but then the general theory will be concerned with all its subgroups and homomorphisms rather than just the graded ones, and there is no easy way of deducing "graded" theorems from the general ones. It is now becoming more usual to treat a graded group (as in [3]) as a family of groups {GJ. A graded subgroup is then a family of subgroups and a graded homomorphism is a family of group homomorphisms. This is certainly more natural from a general standpoint. In the same way a graded ring becomes a family {RJ of abelian groups together with a collection of multiplications p,, : R, X R, --f R,+, .I n this paper we suggest a general theory which is wide enough in scope to deal with all the systems mentioned above (and many others) but which 8.