Showing in the 1800s that Newtonian Gravity fails to account for the precession of Mercury, with no idea on how to construct the General Theory of Relativity, d

Showing in the 1800s that Newtonian Gravity fails to account for the precession of Mercury, with no idea on how to construct the General Theory of Relativity, doesn't make the critique of Newtonian Gravity any less valid. Not to mention they provide 3 proposals of improving things.