ADAMS, J.C. (JOHN COUCH). - A NEW METHOD IN LUNAR THEORY INTRODUCED.

On the Secular Variation of the Moon's Mean Motion. Received and Read June 16, 1853.

(London, Richard Taylor and William Francis, 1853) 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1853, Vol. 143 - Part III. Pp. 397-406. Clean and fine.

First appearance of this importent paper by Adams, - famous for his co-discovery with Le Verrier, of Neptune in 1846 - in which he introduces new mathematical methods in dealing with the pertubations of the Moon, raising a sharp scientific controversy, and correcting Laplace's great memoir of 1788.

"He (Adams) was elected fellow of Pembroke College in 1853, and shortly afterwards he presented to the Royal Society a remarkable paper (the paper offered) on the secular accleration of the moon's mean motion. This quantity was thought to have been definitively investigated by Pierre Simon de Laplace in 1788, but Adams showed that Laplace's solution was incorrect. In particular, Laplace had ignored a variation in solar eccentricity that introduces into the diffrential equations for the moon's motion a series of additional terms. Adams calculated the second term of series, on which the secular acceleartion depends....This paper caused a sharp scientific controversy, marked by angry chauvinism on the part of several French astronomers. Their attack stimulated a number of independent investigations of the subject, all of which confirmed Adams' results. The matter was definitely settles in his favor by 1861, but not without hard feelings."(DSB I, p. 54b).

Order-nr.: 42763