Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
A general review is given of chemical abundance determinations; particular emphasis is given to abundances of galactic and extragalactic metal-poor objects since presumably they represent the abundances of the primeval material from which our Galaxy was formed. The following results are stressed: (a) most of the helium present in the galaxies of the local group as well as in other galaxies was produced before these objects were formed, (b) the heavy elements were produced mainly as the result of stellar evolution, (c) there is a chemical abundance gradient in our Galaxy and, by analogy with other galaxies, it is expected to be steeper near the nucleus, (d) the carbon and oxygen content of our Galaxy increased at a rate different from the metals, reaching their present abundance earlier than the other heavy elements, and (e) the increase of the iron abundance in the disk of our Galaxy with time has been small while that of carbon is negligible; furthermore, as a group the super-metal-rich stars correspond to the old disk population. Several models of galactic chemical evolution are reviewed.