This precession rate had been precisely measured using data collected since the 1600's, and it was later found that Newton's theory of gravity predicts a value that differs from the observed value. That difference, which I am calling the anomalous precession, was estimated to be about 43 arcseconds per century in Einstein's time.
I have heard that general relativity predicts an additional correction that is almost exactly sufficient to account for that 43"/century difference