Wilder's law of initial value (German "Ausgangswertgesetz", Ausgangswert meaning baseline in modern terms) states that "the direction of response of a body function to any agent depends to a large degree on the initial level of that function", proposed by Joseph Wilder.
Wilder gave human subjects injections of pilocarpine, atropine, or adrenaline, and found that the changes in pulse and blood pressure were smaller than average, if subjects had high values before the injection, and vice versa.
At that time, he worked in the office of Dr. Wagner-Jauregg, the Nobel Prize–winning doctor, at the University of Vienna.
Wilder's legacy was established through the Law of Initial Value, which has been published the world over.
He also practiced psychoanalysis in New York, and previously, as the Director of the Rothschilds' hospital for neurotics called "Rosenhügel" in Vienna.