Interstellar abundances of oxygen and nitrogen

Neutral nitrogen and oxygen column densities or limits are derived for 53 path lengths through the diffuse interstellar medium and compared with column densities of neutral hydrogen. For neither N nor O is a systematic increase of depletion found as reddening increases. The value found for forbidden O/N is 8, and the abundances of N and O are both between 40% and 70% of the solar values. Implications of these results for models of interstellar grains are briefly discussed.