A sample of X-ray emitting normal galaxies from the BMW-HRI Catalogue

We obtained a sample of 143 normal galaxies with X-ray luminosity in the range 10(38)-10(43) erg s(-1) from the cross-correlation of the ROSAT HRI Brera Multi-scale Wavelet (BMW - HRI) Catalogue with the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database (LEDA). We find that the average X-ray properties of this sample are in good agreement with those of other samples of galaxies in the literature. We selected a complete flux limited serendipitous sample of 32 galaxies from which we derived the log N - log S distribution of normal galaxies in the flux range 1.1-110 x 10(-14) erg cm(-2) s(-1). The resulting distribution is consistent with the Euclidean - 1.5 slope. Comparisons with other samples, such as the Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey, the ROSAT All Sky Survey, the XMM-Newton/2dF survey, and the Chandra Deep Field Survey indicate that the log N - log S distribution of normal galaxies is consistent with a Euclidean slope over a flux range of about 6 decades.