Do you know who introduced the distinction between active and passive mass?
In what circumstances the necessity for such distinction arose and when it was discarded? Wasn't it quite obvious that a massive body produces gravitational pull and is pulled at the same time?
See Max Jammer, Concepts of Mass in Classical and Modern Physics, Princeton UP (2000), page 91 :
It is, of course, difficult, if not impossible, to identify the first individual to use the notion or the term “gravitational mass.” However, records show that in discussions held in 1907 at a convention of the Italian Physical Society, attended by E. Alessandri, G. Castelnuovo, and G. Vailati, among others, the term “massa gravitazionale” was used. It thus seems certain that there was an explicit distinction between $m_i$ and $m_g$ not later than 1907.
It is also difficult to name with certainty the first individual to distinguish between $m_a$ and $m_p$. What is certain, however, is the fact that this distinction played an important role in physical discussions from the time Hermann Bondi publicized it in his often quoted essay on negative mass in general relativity [H. Bondi, “Negative Mass in General Relativity,” Reviews of Modern Physics 29, 423–428 (1957).].
