SUMMARY In two series of conscious healthy dogs, a study of duodenal electric activity was made to locate the pacemaker or site of the greatest intrinsic frequency of the pacesetter potential. In three dogs, an annular myotomy of the duodenum about 1 cm proximal (orad) to the biliary ampulla caused a reduction in the frequency of the pacesetter potential distal (caudad) to the conduction block and demonstrated that the pacemaker was not in the region of the ampulla, as had been suggested previously. Annular myotomy of the duodenum at increasing intervals distal to the pylorus in a second series of eight dogs showed that the pacemaker was present in the proximal 5 to 6 mm of duodenum. The greater frequency of the pacemaker was found to maintain constant distal conduction of the pacesetter potential. Distal conduction of the pacesetter potential was shown on occasion to be associated with the distal propagation of action potentials along the duodenum.Since the early observations of Alvarez and Mahoney (1922a and b), it has become established that a cyclically recurring rhythmic change in electric potential is propagated caudally in the longitudinal muscle layer of the small intestine of many species, including man. This has been termed the slow wave, basic electric rhythm, or pacesetter potential. According to current interpretation (Bortoff, 1965;Code, Szurszewski, Kelly, and Smith, 1968;Nelsen and Becker, 1968), the function of the pacesetter potential is to organize the motor activity of the small bowel and to define its maximal contractile frequency.Records obtained from extracellular electrodes at different levels of intact small intestine have shown that the frequency of oscillation of the pacesetter potential is greatest in the duodenum and jejunum and decreases progressively toward the terminal ileum (Armstrong, Milton, and