The controversy surrounding the secular acceleration of the Moon's mean motion (Q1203010)

Already Halley suspected the existence of a secular acceleration of lunar motion. The search for a perturbation term supposedly caused by the gravity of the Sun led to a bitter clash between experts in celestial mechanics of the 19th century. This controversy is described by the author in great mathematical detail. The final part of the article deals with the tidal theory which eventually solved the problem. The text is wound up by general methodological conclusions about how science works. A bibliography of 74 mostly classical investigations and memoires adds considerably to the value of the article.