  In order to help understand the phenomena of X-ray emission from early-type
galaxies, we obtained an optically flux-limited sample of 34 early-type
galaxies, observed with ROSAT. A previous analysis of this sample suggested
that the most X-ray luminous galaxies were in rich environments. Here we
investigate environmental influences quantitatively, and find a positive
correlation between L_B/L_X and the local galaxy density. We suggest that this
correlation occurs because the X-ray luminosity is enhanced either through
accretion of the intergalactic gas or because the ambient medium stifles
galactic winds. When the ambient medium is unimportant, partial or global
galactic winds can occur, reducing L_B/L_X. These effects lead to the large
observed dispersion in L_X at fixed L_B. We argue that the transition from
global winds to partial winds is one of the principle reasons for the steep
relationship between L_X and L_B. We discuss details of the data reduction not
previously presented, and examine the dependence of L_X on the choice of outer
source radius and background location. Effects of Malmquist bias are shown not
to be important for the issues addressed. Finally, we compare the temperature
deduced for these galaxies from different analyses of ROSAT and ASCA data.
